Championship clubs vote in new squad spending rules

Just three Championship clubs recorded a profit in 2024-25 and one of those, Stoke City, only did so because a £90m loan was waived by new owner John Coates to offset what would have otherwise been a £29m loss.

The 22 clubs who have submitted their books for 2024-25 lost a combined £317m, if you take into account Stoke’s underlying numbers without the £90m written-off loan.

SCR will limit clubs’ spending on player and manager-related costs (including transfer fees) to 85% of income.

Owners will be permitted to make a flexible equity top-up allowance of £33m over a three-year period, of which no more than £15m can be used in any one season.

The regulations will include safeguards around commercial deals linked to owners or associated parties.

“The new framework allows for real-time monitoring during the season, rather than reviewing ‘after the event’, with the aim of giving clubs greater clarity and the club financial reporting unit earlier visibility over clubs’ financial position,” an English Football League statement said.

SCR benefits clubs with bigger stadiums and lucrative sponsorship deals as it effectively creates a larger budget to spend on players.

Modifications have also been made to the Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) rules in League One, with the percentage of turnover that clubs will be able to spend on wages reduced from 60% to 50%.

Clubs relegated from the Championship will be permitted to spend 65% of turnover on wages during their first season in League One, reduced from 75%.

However, a vote among League Two clubs to adopt the same SCMP calculation did not gain enough support.