Burnley’s return to the Premier League last season saw losses reduce, though the club would have posted a record deficit were it not for £38.8million ($52.3m) in damages received from the club’s successful lawsuit against Everton for rule breaches in 2021-22. Bank debt, first loaded onto Burnley by a leveraged buyout in December 2020, fell by a third on the back of the club’s ownership group providing almost £80m in funds. Such debt of £70million at the end of July 2026 was higher than the day of that takeover, though borrowings due to be repaid within one year reduced from £67.5m then to £45.9m by the beginning of this week. Whether it means Burnley’s overall debt has reduced by over £20m since the summer or there is further bank debt still due but over a longer term is unclear; at the time of publication, a spokesperson for the club’s ownership group had not responded to a request from The Athletic for an up-to-date figure for Burnley’s total bank debt. Either way, pressingly,...
In his Zurich fastness the Swiss Ramble has been diving down into his data base to produce fascinating statistics on Premier League and Championship finances. Much more on his Substack page. In any statistical analysis ‘outliers’ that break the general pattern are always interesting and here that crown goes to Chelsea. Whether all the money spent has paid off on the pitch is a moot point. The main source of cash is obviously revenue, though the difference between the Premier League and the Championship is stark. For example, in 2024/25 the £6.9 bln revenue in the top flight was more than seven times as much as the Championship’s £929m. One driver of investment in Premier League clubs is the very impressive revenue growth, especially compared to leagues in other countries. This has shot up by nearly a third (£7.1 bn) in the last 5 years, comparing £29.8 bn to the £22.7 bn in the preceding 5-year period. The Championship has also grown in this time, but at a much...