Leicester ‘face £70m black hole’ after disastrous spending gamble

From the outside it might seem difficult to understand quite how the Foxes got here.

Leicester have been relegated despite having several of the highest-paid players in the Championship.

Even the six-point deduction for failing financial rules in 2023-24 may not mathematically send them down, after just two wins from 19 league games in 2026.

Just last month Leicester reported a deficit of £71.1m for the 2024-25 season, when they were last in the Premier League. There is no indication of another potential points penalty for this period.

Accumulated losses since 2019 have reached £375m, and in recent years future finances have been cashed in to keep the club running.

Loans worth at least £100m have been taken out with Macquarie, an Australian investment bank, at rates of about 8% to 9%.

This includes advanced payments for future transfer fees due on five occasions.

The latest, taken out in September, effectively brought forward in instalments due for last summer’s sales of Tom Cannon, Kasey McAteer and James Justin.

In January, Leicester rolled over their parachute payment loan, folding in the final tranche of £35m due for the 2026-27 season.

Lots of English clubs use Macquarie in this way, so why could it be such an issue for Leicester?

The club have been using tomorrow’s money to pay for today. And if that money tap starts to drip, for instance by being in League One?

“This is going to be the big challenge,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.

“They will be in receipt of second-year parachute payments, but it looks as if they have already cashed those in through Macquarie.

“They owe transfer fees themselves, because they spent a reasonable amount when they got to the Premier League.

“So there’s an awful lot of cash going out, and there doesn’t appear to be a lot of cash coming back in.

“And you only get £2m from the League One TV deal.”