New Financial Regulation in English Football: Key Takeaways from LawInSport's Football Law 2026
On May 13th, 2026, LawInSport hosted its annual Football Law Conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, bringing together legal, financial, and regulatory professionals from across the football industry in the UK.
Ashley Churchman, Director with A&M Disputes and Investigations, moderated a panel session titled “Navigating Financial Regulations,” discussing the overhaul of the English Premier League’s financial rules and other developments affecting clubs, lenders, and advisers in 2026.
The following article summarises the key takeaways from the panel discussion.1
New SCR rules are now in place across all top divisions
The Premier League will have a new set of financial regulations from the 2026/27 season onwards, with a combination of both Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and Sustainability and Systemic Resilience (SSR) replacing the existing Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Shortly after the conference, the English Football League (EFL), which had been shadowing the SCR as the Premier League was trialling it, confirmed it will be introducing its own version of SCR in the Championship.2
With Leagues One and Two already covered by their own cost-based metric (Salary Cost Management Protocol/SCMP), this means that all four top divisions in English men’s football, as well as the Women’s Super League (WSL), will have cost-based metrics instead of profit-based ones. Each system has (or presumably will have, as the details of the new regulations have not been published in full) its differences, and so clubs moving between divisions will need to be flexible and aware. The same is true for those in European competitions, where UEFA applies its own cost-based regulations.
The introduction of the separate set of balance sheet-based regulations (the SSR) was broadly welcomed by panellists. It was also noted that the new framework is more closely aligned with the approach taken by the new Independent Football Regulator (IFR), covered in more detail below.
Real-time monitoring is raising the stakes for compliance
The panel suggested that in-season sanctions, with compliance monitored in real-time, could strengthen the effectiveness of financial regulation. The Championship’s 2025/26 rule changes3 offered a concrete example of this in practice. Under those rules, pre-emptive compliance assessments were carried out during the season, with meaningful consequence: clubs could be required to adhere to a strict budget (or be subject to a business plan), or be blocked by the EFL from registering new players or extending existing contracts.
As is clear from the takeaways above, the rules across the whole of English professional football are constantly under review, and it is important that clubs stay on top of recent developments to avoid breaches. The panel flagged two areas as requiring close attention:
- Revenue diversification: The importance of clubs diversifying their revenue streams, admittedly easier for some clubs (those with larger fanbases or stadia, for example) than others.
- Debt funding: Under the SCR, debt interest does not count as a relevant cost, but the revenues derived from deploying that debt in club operations do. This implies a potential benefit to debt-funded investment, provided that the debt doesn’t cause the club to breach the balance sheet tests in the SSR.
On the other hand, the impact of breaching could be so material that lenders may seek to monitor borrower clubs more closely, tracking their compliance with both the new financial regulations and loan covenants. This point was touched upon again as part of a discussion of the IFR. As part of the regulator’s new licensing regime, lenders will also have to contemplate the possibility that a borrower club in breach of certain rules could have its licence revoked.
Engage with regulators early – communication is key
The panel was aligned on the importance of proactive engagement with the IFR, an approach that mirrors how the EFL has sought to work with its member clubs. Recent judgments on Premier League PSR cases show that “exceptional cooperation” can result in reduced sanctions for financial breaches, but of course communication prior to any breach may reduce the chances of one occurring at all. Early engagement with external experts and legal advisors is equally important.
Culture of compliance
The difference between having a “culture of compliance” and something more akin to a “culture of trying to find loopholes” was discussed at length. While it is perhaps inevitable that when a set of rules exists, some people subject to those rules may view them simply as a hoop to jump through, the panel was broadly positive about the possibility of football moving towards a genuine desire for sustainability and, therefore, compliance with the rules as a by-product of that.
How A&M can help
A&M and its staff have extensive experience advising on matters relating to financial regulation, across football and other sports (including eSports), as well as in other regulated industries such as banking, pensions and insurance. In football, this experience includes performing compliance reviews of clubs on behalf of football federations, reviewing the application of international regulations by individual football federations, and acting as expert witness in multiple Premier League PSR cases.
The recent judgment in the case of Burnley v Everton highlights how breaches of football’s financial regulations can give rise to successful damages claims by impacted parties.4 A&M’s senior Disputes and Investigations team includes testifying experts with significant experience in such complex, high-value sports disputes.
Sources:
- Note: Chatham House Rule applied – comments are not attributed to individual speakers.
- https://www.efl.com/news/2026/may/15/championship-and-league-one-clubs-approve-changes-to-financial-control-rules/
- https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/unpacking-the-efls-financial-rule-changes-for-2025-26-and-how-they-impact-clubs
- https://resources.premierleague.pulselive.com/premierleague/document/2026/06/10/14b0acd1-3d6a-41e0-a862-fffce1d6c2cc/BURNLEY-v-EVERTON-Compensation-Decision-with-Attachments-Redacted-.pdf
