Football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley spoke to the Real EFL this week about the state of the game from a financial perspective.
There are plenty of horror stories around the EFL and beyond about bad finances, with Wigan, Reading, Southend, and Torquay four that have suffered over the past few seasons. The Championship seems to be a boom-or-bust division that can kill off a big club for years, while below that, there’s always a rich, small club looking to outspend rivals and get up the divisions quickly.
The independent regulator might have put paid to that, but with a general election on the horizon, that seems to have been parked for now. That means clubs must look at each other and decide what best practice really does look like. Some clubs are better than others, and Jake Coburn asked Dr Plumley if he felt there were any clubs that were role models for the rest.
“It really does depend on what you define as a role model in this case,” replied Dr Plumley, Principal Lecturer in Sport Finance at Sheffield Hallam University, speaking courtesy of Instant Casinos. “So what do you want in terms of your club from kind of a good financial management point of view?
“There are plenty of clubs that are self-sustaining nowadays. If you look in the EFL, Plymouth Argyle run a really tight budget. The owner’s not now going to put in any more money, but he has pushed that club up and invested in it.
“You’ve got clubs like Rotherham United who run relatively sound financial models, but they then yo-yo between League One and the bottom end of the Championship. Clubs like Accrington Stanley would be another good example; they run really well financially.”
Of course, those three clubs are not ones you’d immediately think of when discussing success- Accrington were relegated in 2023. Rotherham in 2024 and Plymouth struggled in their first season in the Championship. However, all three have been promoted in recent memory, and all three have few fears about the future in terms of existence.
However, as Dr. Plumley explained, it is getting harder for clubs who try to do things the right way when the likes of Wrexham and (in the past) Fleetwood and Forest Green are inflating wages and transfer fees by bending fair play rules or levering rich owners willing to artificially fund the club.
“The downside to that answer is the reality of that is that how do you then compete with the clubs that are overspending or have wealthier owners and are willing to kind of take those gambles?”
While there’s no answer on the horizon, and the cold slap in the face delivered by the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have been forgotten as quickly as it arrived, many clubs will still try to get the upper hand from one season to the next by thinking big and living beyond their means. However, Plymouth, Accrington and Rotherham, to name three, are clubs that others might look to for inspiration should they wish to get their houses in order.
