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Premier League losses close to £800m

Premier League clubs made a combined loss of almost £800 mn last season, highlighting the challenges facing investors who have spent billions of pounds buying teams in the world’s most popular football league. Annual accounts from the 20 teams in England’s top flight covering the 2024-25 season show that 14 clubs reported pre-tax losses, despite revenues rising to more than £6.8 bn across the league from £6.3 bn a year earlier.

 Chelsea, controlled by US private equity firm Clearlake Capital, reported a loss of £262 mn, a record for an English club. Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham, both currently fighting to avoid relegation, made losses of £120.7 mn and £104 mn respectively.

English football has attracted billions of pounds of investment, much of it from the US, including from wealthy individuals, hedge funds, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. However, M&A activity has cooled recently, in part owing to concerns about the ability to generate financial returns in an intensely competitive league, as well as the high valuations demanded by existing owners. 

Some clubs limited their losses last year by selling assets to related parties. Newcastle United reported a pre-tax profit of £34.7 mn, but only after it sold its stadium to the club’s parent company for £172.1 mn. 

Growing international demand for media rights and buoyant sponsorship markets have underpinned the ongoing rise in the Premier League’s income, at a time when other European leagues have seen theirs stagnate.

However, the cost of signing and paying players has continued to increase. Premier League teams spent roughly €2.4 bn signing players in the summer of 2024 and more than €3.5 bn in the summer of 2025, according to data from Transfermarkt.co.uk. Stadium investments and hiring to build out commercial operations have also driven up costs. 

Yet Premier League clubs have failed to make an impact in this year's Champions League with only Arsenal reaching the semi-finals and limping across the line to do so.  There will, however, be one English club in the Europa League final.

The Premier League is in the process of overhauling its financial rules. From next season, the amount clubs can spend on players will be capped as a portion of income. The change will bring an end to the controversial “profit and sustainability” regime, which allowed clubs to lose up to £105 mn over the course of three seasons.

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