Only FOUR clubs in the top four divisions in England in profit for 2024/25

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 27 Mar 2026 06:05 CDT
• 5 min read

News

Just over half of professional football clubs in England have published their accounts for 2024/25 - and only four of them have turned a profit.

From the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two, only Liverpool, Bournemouth, Plymouth Argyle and Peterborough United posted profits for the last accounting year.

Average losses for clubs were £31.1 million in the Premier League, £15.1m in the Championship, £5m in League One and £2.6m in League Two.

Liverpool turned a profit of £15.2m. In the Deloitte Money League 2026, the Reds were the most successful Premier League side for the first time in their history.

The Anfield side won the Premier League under Arne Slot and although that has aided a major boost in their performance - they jumped from eighth in 2023/24 to fifth in 2024/25 - they have also benefited from an increase in commercial revenue.

For the third year running, Real Madrid topped the list with earnings of €1.16 billion from the 2024/25 season. Los Blancos were the only club in the world with earnings over one billion euros.

Operational concerns

Worryingly for clubs in England, they are heavily reliant on selling players to turn a profit. In fact, when you take player sales out of the equation, not a single club in England turned a profit at an operational level.

In the Premier League, the worst pre-tax losses belong to West Ham, who were £104.2m in the red for 2024/25.

In the Championship, it is Cardiff (£35.2m), while in League One and League Two, Charlton (£15.4m) and Port Vale (£6.1m) respectively post the biggest losses.

£5 billion in losses since 1992

Since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, the football clubs involved in the competition have suffered nearly £5 billion in cumulative losses.

Although the English top-flight is a money-making behemoth, the debts that clubs have run up since its inception are tremendous.

The total loss is £4.99 billion spread across the 51 clubs that have played in the Premier League, reports football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

Remarkably, just 10 clubs are responsible for 90% of those losses: Chelsea, Aston Villa, Everton, Manchester City, Fulham, Manchester United, Sunderland, Leicester City, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.

Chelsea alone are responsible for £1.256 billion of that figure. Transfer expenditure is the main reason for this, with Roman Abramovich having installed a big-money transfer policy that has been followed by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool are second, third and fourth in this regard.

Which Premier League clubs make a profit?

Out of the 51 clubs to have played Premier League football, only 20 have generated a profit in the last 20 years. They are:

Swindon, Oldham, Barnsley, Ipswich, Birmingham, Reading, Liverpool, Blackpool, Norwich, Brentford, Huddersfield, Swansea, Sheffield United, Brighton, Luton, Hull City, West Brom, Burnley, Arsenal and Tottenham.

Arsenal are Spurs are the two biggest success stories when it comes to profit. The London clubs are up £132.4m and £183.2m respectively, despite both investing lavishly in new stadiums.

While Premier League sides make more than any other clubs in the world due to broadcasting revenue, they are still spending like never before, with wage bills exceeding 90% of revenue in some cases.

Relegation, losing players on free transfers, and inflated transfer fees are other ways losses can skyrocket, yet these are risks that clubs appear willing to take as they chase glory.

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