Just how f***ed is English football?

Halloween may still be a fortnight away but plenty of people seemed to be spooked this week by the numbers in the Independent Football Regulator’s draft State of the Game report.

Almost all (94 per cent) English clubs are loss-making, two thirds wouldn’t last 90 days without owner funding and almost a third would go bust in a month if the money tap was turned off. 

Clearly not healthy, but what did we expect the IFR to say? The watchdog was created precisely because of this, and no one with even a passing grasp of football’s economics can be surprised. 

So, just how f***ed is the national game? IFR CEO Richard Monks injected some welcome realism when addressing reporters at the report’s launch: “We're not saying this is a pack of cards that's all about to collapse. What we're saying is that financial risk is increasing.”

Investor interest in English clubs has never been higher and revenues are at record levels. The balancing act required of the IFR is to preserve that momentum while de-risking clubs. In football terms, keep the goals flowing but tighten up at the back. Easier said than done. 

Welcome to The Turnover, a weekly newsletter on the business of sport from City AM. It’s Frank here with a distinctly Westminster-flavoured edition as – in words I never expected to type – the Manchester City fallout threatens to engulf the UK government.

IFR boss Kogan vowed to straight-bat any questions on City but still hoiked a few choice shots over the stands, warning not only that he’d quit if PM Andy Burnham tried to water down any punishment of the club’s owners but also that he’d ask government to advance the watchdog more cash should Sheikh Mansour take the fight to court. To be a fly on the wall at that chat.

Burnham insists City chiefs did not raise the Premier League charges which threaten their trophy-laden era under Abu Dhabi ownership in meetings between them but he remains on the back foot over an issue that seems destined to stink out the corridors of power until the fate of the club and its proprietors has been decided.

“Both Drip and Spurs share sustainability as a core value,” proclaimed the announcement of a sponsorship between the canned water brand founded by celebrity chef Big Zuu and Tottenham Hotspur Women in 2024. Fast forward two years and Drip’s liquidation with debts of £9m has left Spurs high and dry, Sam Cunningham reports in puntastic fashion.  

Padel pushers were alarmed this week by suggestions that the sport’s bubble might be bursting in the UK. Contradicting that louder than any soundbite could, though, was our exclusive news of club chain Rocket Padel securing £7m in funding to open two more London sites.

You could be forgiven for not knowing that a Rugby League World Cup has just started, but indeed it has. Sports marketing maestro Simon Dent writes that the silence around the tournament should be a huge worry for the sport’s chiefs, and I can’t disagree. 

Two big stories highlighting notable macro trends popped up this week: first, Africa’s growing ambitions to be a host of major sports after Formula 1 announced it will race in Rwanda; and second, Netflix making its first major move in live men’s football rights.

Matt crunched the crowd numbers for the first few weeks of Prem Rugby, and while Red Bull’s takeover appears to have given Newcastle’s support some wings there remains work to do for Exeter Chiefs’ new US ownership.

ICYMI corner: hospitality at AJ-Fury will cost you £20k (but does come with a commemorative lanyard); sport media rights value hit a record high this year; and the NFL’s struggle to fill London stadiums has spread to Wembley.

There’s never a quiet week in the business of sport but The Turnover is here to read the 245-page reports so you don’t have to. Have a great weekend.

Football regulator boss David Kogan has vowed to quit if prevented from punishing Manchester City’s owners — and is ready to ask government for extra cash to fight any legal challenge from Abu Dhabi.

The Independent Football Regulator has the power to disqualify City’s owners and force Sheikh Mansour to sell up following the club’s conviction for systematically breaking Premier League rules.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has raised concerns about that outcome, prompting fears of government interference, but Kogan has made it clear he won’t stand for ministerial meddling.

The Man City case has political and diplomatic dimensions, meaning any decisions the IFR might make will take on an import far beyond the stewardship of a single football club – albeit the dominant one in the English game for the best part of two decades.

It is probably fair to say that however long the regulator exists for, it will never handle a more significant case. Quite the baptism of fire.

They say it never rains but it pours: struggling Tottenham Hotspur’s latest problem is Drip, the canned-water company owned by celebrity chef Big Zuu, whose liquidation has left the club high and dry.

Spurs signed a deal in 2024 making Drip the official front-of-training-wear partner of the women’s team, with much fanfare around the shared sustainability values between the club and the company, described as a “disruptor in the water market”.

But the club – stranded in the relegation zone without a win from their opening six matches despite spending over £300m in the summer – are now not expected to receive a drop of the £86,000 owed.

Did you know the Rugby League World Cup starts this week?

If you’re reading this in the north of England then the answer is probably yes. If down south then I suspect the answer is much more likely to be no. This is a huge problem.

Rugby league has one of the most watchable products in British sport. It is fast, physical, easy to understand and packed with elite athletes. Yet once again, as its biggest international tournament approaches, it’s trapped inside its own bubble.

Rocket Padel has raised €8m (£6.8m) as the international club operator pushes ahead with plans to open two major new sites in West London and East Croydon.

The funding round values the business, which runs five clubs in Denmark, four in the UK and is building its first in Spain, at an undisclosed eight-figure sum, it said.

Rocket Padel says the UK is its biggest growth market, with court time at its flagship Battersea Power Station club 95 per cent fully booked, and the company is actively seeking further sites in London and beyond.

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