Ther 49ers are newcomers to the Premier League but set themselves up diligently for their biggest test yet at Leeds United
Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter
07:30, 03 Apr 2026
The 49ers will be pleased with last season's figures but perhaps face their greatest challenge this annum
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The 49ers will be pleased with last season's figures but perhaps face their greatest challenge this annum(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Leeds United may have only returned to the Premier League last summer but the financial accounts for the 2024/25 season showed that the club and 49ers Enterprises were already operating as a top-tier outfit.
There was lots to be impressed about in the release of annual figures on Wednesday - a 7% rise in revenue from the previous year, a 19% reduction in losses, a 34% increase in commercial income. It was a positive report, although perhaps it ought to have been.
The backdrop of Championship promotion and the activity that brings, boasting the 14th largest football stadium in England and hosting two cup games at Elland Road will have all contributed to the £31.6million brought in through matchdays.
The standout line is that this matchday figure comfortably puts Leeds as a mid-table Premier League side and the overarching tale is that the club responded to financial risk following play-off defeat with aplomb. The 49ers set out a plan and fulfilled it.
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A record revenue of £137m was attained without playing that extra home league game the play-offs required the previous campaign. And the record was set despite a reduction in parachute payments and broadcast money shrinking by £6m - a whole Jayden Bogle - to £47.2m.
Commercially, Leeds excelled, this perhaps exemplified by the popular ‘Smiley’ yellow away kit that flew off the shelves last season. It would be remiss to not underline that Leeds did invest heavily onto the pitch to help clinch promotion.
A wage bill of £107.7m was nearly that of their Premier League figure two years prior, with the average weekly packet up to £45,000. Leeds did end the season with an on-the-books profit; against a spend of £45m on transfers, United brought in £67.5m from sales.
The arrivals of Bogle for £5m and Ao Tanaka for £3m were undoubtedly fantastic pieces of business but a hefty portion of the sale figure is made up of the £40m received for Georginio Rutter from Brighton & Hove Albion.
The fact that Leeds yielded such a figure for a key player and still earned promotion needs to be categorised as a feather in the cap of the board. And ultimately, Leeds got out what they put in last season.
The final embers of last season were a key conjuncture for the 49ers. It is unlikely that such positive numbers would have been replicated in the current 2025/26 period amid a third Championship season with the Whites having to cut their cloth accordingly.
Paraag Marathe, chairman of Leeds United
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Paraag Marathe, chairman of Leeds United(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Instead, this season in the Premier League will have seen figures balloon in both directions; in terms of expenditure, revenue, commercial intake and the general loss total. The weight of the pendulum increases ten-fold. This season, you therefore feel, is the biggest test so far.
Naturally, relegation would not only destroy the progress the 49ers have made and their pursuit of making the club a Premier League regular, but Leeds would suffer heavily financially amid a heavy drop in income amid hefty expenditure.
It must be remembered that, under a new recruitment regime, more than £100m was spent on players last summer with comparatively pittance brought in through sales. This adding to the fact that the financial gap to the EFL continues to grow, it is evermore vital Leeds stay up.
For reference, money spent towards infrastructure - namely the Elland Road expansion project - does not count towards spending rules while a bumper increase in Red Bull’s front-of-shirt sponsor upon promotion will have helped PSR matters.
As it happens, should Leeds stay up, they will initially be marginally worse off under the new ‘Squad Cost Ratio’ financial framework set to come in this summer, replacing PSR.
Over time, Leeds will be better for it. But, of course, there is no guarantee Leeds can stay in the Premier League long enough to see that come to pass.
What is nevertheless clear from the 2025/26 figures and last summer is that the 49ers cannot be accused of not giving it a go. Energy, effort and resources have been poured into Elland Road and so far it has paid off.
The 49ers had a good starting base given the size of Leeds United but you need not look far, or beyond the club itself, to see how historical outfits can be mismanaged into a mire.
The owners’ favourite phrase is to say they will only speak when they have something to say, but these latest figures also tell a story without the need for words.
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