April 22 – Premier League and EFL clubs are growing frustrated at the Independent Football Regulator’s (IFR) refusal to share a clear operating budget. Repeated requests for the budget have gone unanswered.
The original projection, set under the previous UK government when the football governance bill was introduced two years ago, was £10 million a year, or £100 million over a decade. Clubs suspect that the number has already moved.
The appointment last week of Boston Consulting Group has not calmed nerves. One club executive described Boston as among the most expensive management consultancies on the market. Their primary brief is research for the State of the Game report, the forensic piece meant to inform a new financial settlement between the Premier League and the EFL.
The IFR is currently funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. That central funding runs out at the start of the 2027-28 season. At that point, the bill lands on the 116 clubs across the top five men’s divisions. Premier League clubs will carry most of it.
Chair David Kogan and chief executive Richard Monks faced questions at the Premier League shareholders’ meeting last month and again at the EFL AGM. Neither provided firm answers. The budget is still being set by the IFR board.
The timing is awkward. Premier League operating expenses, split equally across the 20 clubs, are up 30% in five years. Legal costs alone jumped 325% from £11.3 million in 2022-23 to £48.1 million in 2023-24, driven by prosecutions of Manchester City, Everton, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester. Clubs posted combined operating losses of £1.65 billion last season.
The IFR resp: “The IFR exists to improve the financial sustainability of clubs, the resilience of the leagues, and to protect the game’s rich heritage for fans. We are in the process of setting our budget and will be proportionate and cost-effective in our approach.”
Proportionate to what, exactly?
Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]