Championship clubs vote on new squad spending rules

only Three Championship clubs recorded profits in 2024-25 And one of them, Stoke City, only did so because a £90m loan was waived by new owner John Coates on what would otherwise have been a £29m loss.

The 22 clubs that have lodged their books for 2024-25 have lost a combined £317m, if you consider Stoke’s underlying numbers without the £90m written-down debt.

The SCR will limit the club’s player and manager-related expenses (including transfer fees) to 85% of revenue.

Owners will be allowed a flexible equity top-up allowance of £33m over a three-year period, of which no more than £15m can be used in any one season.

The regulation will include safeguards around commercial contracts involving owners or related parties.

“The new framework allows for real-time monitoring with the aim of giving clubs greater clarity and earlier visibility to the club’s financial reporting unit on the club’s financial position, rather than ‘after the event’ reviews,” an English Football League statement said.

SCR benefits clubs with bigger stadiums and lucrative sponsorship deals as it effectively creates a bigger budget to spend on players.

Changes have also been made to the Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) rules in League One, with the percentage of turnover that clubs will be able to spend on wages reduced from 60% to 50%.

Clubs relegated from the Championship will be allowed to spend their first season in League One on wages, down from 75% to 65% of turnover.

However, a vote between the league’s two clubs to adopt the same SCMP calculation did not receive enough support.