The majority of English football clubs are teetering on the edge of financial collapse, according to a landmark report published by the Independent Football Regulator (IFR). Titled State of the Game, the document is the IFR's most comprehensive assessment of English football's financial health to date, covering an 18-month period and examining all 160 clubs under its regulation.

A game generating billions — but losing money

Despite English football generating more than £9 billion in revenue, 94 percent of clubs are loss-making. The IFR describes the situation as a "dangerous cocktail of rising debt and an over-reliance on owner funding, leaving clubs and their fans at risk."

The report acknowledges that the Premier League has made English football the "richest, best and most deeply competitive" league in the world. Yet it warns of "financial cliff-edges between and within leagues," noting that the average Premier League club earns more than eight times the revenue of an average Championship club.

Parachute payments — funds paid by the Premier League to newly relegated Championship clubs — are also singled out as a distorting force, fuelling wage inflation and encouraging clubs to take dangerous gambles chasing top-flight status.

Lower leagues under intense pressure

Further down the pyramid, the picture is even bleaker. Seventeen EFL and National League clubs are spending more than they earn even before player wages are factored in. More than 60 percent of EFL and National League clubs are technically insolvent, with liabilities exceeding the book value of their assets.

The report also found that more than a quarter of clubs would be unable to survive beyond one month if owner funding was withdrawn — and that the majority have no meaningful contingency plan in place.

IFR chair David Kogan calls for urgent action

IFR chair David Kogan laid out the scale of the problem plainly. "We have 32 clubs that have got less than 30 days' cash cover in their accounts," he told Sky Sports. "So if the owner walks away or drops dead, they're insolvent and go bust."

"Too many clubs get close to the edge and depend on one thing and one thing only, which is a new owner coming down the track. That supply of owners may dry up."

Kogan stressed that now — while money is still flowing through the game — is the right moment to act. "This is exactly the moment when we need to address structural issues because once that sun stops shining, those clubs will be in real trouble," he said.

A six-point plan for reform

The IFR has issued a six-point plan to address the crisis. It calls on clubs to hold greater cash reserves, put contingency plans in place, and improve boardroom governance and diversity. It also urges reform of the revenue distribution model, warning that current arrangements create dangerous imbalances across the pyramid.

The Premier League and EFL have been negotiating a new financial distribution deal for several years without reaching an agreement. The IFR reiterated that it prefers both bodies to settle the matter themselves, but confirmed it retains a "back-stop" power to intervene if no deal is reached.

Kogan outlined three immediate steps: pushing for a new Premier League-EFL distribution agreement that sends more money to lower leagues with spending controls attached; launching a club licensing regime from November that will allow the IFR to intervene directly where financial risk is identified; and working with leagues on longer-term cost controls to embed structural stability across English football.