Overview
- Birmingham City, which filed accounts Wednesday, reported a £39m operating loss, a pre-tax deficit of about £34.4m, and forecast a £59m cash need from Knighthead through December 2026.
- Recent reports show every Championship club lost money last season, with a combined shortfall widely cited at about £411m, the highest outside the Covid year.
- Kieran Maguire told the BBC most clubs would run out of money in roughly six weeks if owners stopped paying in, which would threaten payroll and day‑to‑day bills.
- Clubs are staying inside EFL cost rules by using permitted tools such as owner equity counted as revenue in League One, stadium naming deals with related parties, and moves like Birmingham’s sale of its women’s team to the owners’ company.
- Crewe Alexandra will drop its academy from Category Two to Three to cut costs, and former Liverpool and Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow says owners will keep “buying a lottery ticket” for Premier League promotion, adding urgency to debates over tighter cost controls and revenue sharing under the new regulator.