The Independent Football Regulator will recommend tighter cost controls for English men’s football in a 250-page draft State of the Game report due to be published Tuesday. The document finds that 94% of the 116 clubs across the top five divisions are loss-making and will set out recommendations intended to improve financial sustainability.
The draft will be followed by an eight-week public consultation, with a final version expected in the spring. IFR chair David Kogan and chief executive Richard Monks are due to explain the recommendations at a Manchester press conference on Tuesday.
The report was required under the Football Governance Act, which established the regulator and tasked it with assessing the economics, incentives and risks affecting English football. The IFR’s wider licensing framework requires all 116 clubs in the Premier League, English Football League and National League’s top tier to obtain licences, submit financial plans and address weaknesses such as inadequate cash reserves, excessive day-to-day spending or debt.
The findings arrive as the Premier League and EFL remain divided over a new financial settlement. The Premier League has offered £180m a year for 10 years, up from the current £150m, while the EFL is seeking £207m annually and the right to renegotiate after five years. The EFL has also proposed a “lifeboat fund” for clubs in financial distress. If the leagues cannot reach an agreement, the IFR has the power to impose a settlement.
Manchester City is expected to feature prominently in questions at Tuesday’s briefing after an independent commission found the club guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules and failures to cooperate with the investigation. City has lodged an appeal, and sanctions have not been decided. The IFR’s owners, directors and senior executives test allows it to assess individuals where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing, making the appeal’s outcome relevant to questions about the regulator’s possible powers over the club’s ownership and leadership.