In his Zurich fastness the Swiss Ramble has been diving down into his data base to produce fascinating statistics on Premier League and Championship finances. Much more on his Substack page.
In any statistical analysis ‘outliers’ that break the general pattern are always interesting and here that crown goes to Chelsea. Whether all the money spent has paid off on the pitch is a moot point.
The main source of cash is obviously revenue, though the difference between the Premier League and the Championship is stark. For example, in 2024/25 the £6.9 bln revenue in the top flight was more than seven times as much as the Championship’s £929m.
One driver of investment in Premier League clubs is the very impressive revenue growth, especially compared to leagues in other countries. This has shot up by nearly a third (£7.1 bn) in the last 5 years, comparing £29.8 bn to the £22.7 bn in the preceding 5-year period. The Championship has also grown in this time, but at a much slower rate, so is only up 15% (£520m) from £3.4 bn to £3.9 bn.
Player sales have become increasingly important in recent years. This is especially the case in the Premier League, where new records have been established in each of the last three seasons, surging to an impressive £1.7 bn in 2024/25. The spectacular growth is underlined by the fact that this has almost doubled from £883m in 2022/23. The rise is not so much in the Championship, but it has still increased to almost £400m in each of the last two seasons.
The Premier League splashed out an amazing £11.2 bn on player purchases in the last five years, so this is up 42% from £7.9 bn – and the growth would have been even higher without clubs taking on more transfer debt (i.e. paying transfer fees in instalments).
From the club’s perspective, the best form of funding is a capital injection by the owners, as this will never need to be repaid. This has significantly increased in the last few years, rising to new highs in both the Premier League and the Championship with more than £700m and £200m respectively.
Owner funding in the Premier League has more than tripled in the last five years from £1.4 bln to £4.8 bn, while it has increased by 22% from £1.5 bn to £1.8 bln in the Championship.
The so-called “Big Six” was actually split into two groups, at least in revenue terms: three clubs earned more than £3 bn (Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool), while the other three were all £2.5 bn (Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea). They all had around twice as much as four aspirational clubs that earned more than £1 bn (Aston Villa, Newcastle United, West Ham and Brighton).
In the Championship, the highest earners were clubs that have spent some time in the Premier League, led by Leeds United, Burnley and Sheffield United. However, the vast majority of clubs in the second tier earned less than £200m in the last five years.
The expenses ranking for almost every club was within two places of its revenue ranking. Only four clubs “over-performed”, i.e. lower expenses ranking compared to revenue ranking of more than two places, namely Luton Town, Coventry City, Plymouth Argyle and Brighton. At the other end of the spectrum, three clubs “under-performed”, i.e. higher expenses ranking compared to revenue ranking of more than two places, namely Chelsea, Hull City and Middlesbrough.
_Chelsea a ‘massive outlier’_
Premier League clubs make much larger operating losses with three of them producing deficits of more than half a billion. Chelsea were a massive outlier with £1.2 bn, which was more than twice as much as the next highest, Aston Villa £560m and Everton £528m.
Two clubs in particular have made player sales a key element in their business model, namely Chelsea and Manchester City, who have generated £843m and £761m respectively in the last five years. Boosted by the arrival of the Clearlake Capital crew, Chelsea had by far the highest player purchases in the last five years, splashing out an amazing £1.8 bn, far ahead of every other club, the next highest being Manchester City and Manchester United with £1.0 bn.
The three best performing clubs in the Championship all made good money after selling players following relegation from the Premier League, namely Watford £222m, Leeds United £175m and Burnley £137m.
Adding together the capital and debt, it is clear that Chelsea have required more financial support from their owners than any other club with £1.3 bn (provided via loans in the holding company). Other clubs that have needed significant funding are Fulham £475m, Aston Villa £463m, Everton £399m, Newcastle United £353m, Arsenal £332m and Leeds United £330m.
The real outlier is Chelsea, whose £1.3 bn has basically been used to spend record sums on their squad and cover massive operating losses. While they have been the best in the country at generating money from player sales, this has been nowhere near enough to cover their profligacy elsewhere.