Club-by-club SCR figures can't be worked out exactly from outside
How close each Premier League club is to the 85% line under SCR, the Squad Cost Ratio, is hard to check from outside. The 2026/27 test is on 1 March 2027, and the figures in this article are estimates I built from published accounts before that date, not the league's assessment. Even the clubs themselves are, as a rule, not told how other clubs stand. On my estimates from each club's accounts, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest take the top two places under both methods among the 15 clubs whose Premier League accounts can be compared. Clubs in European competition also have to meet UEFA's 70% cap, which is a separate rule. The numbers in the tables are estimates drawn from the accounts, and the calculation behind them differs from the official SCR. The formulas behind the two estimates and the club-by-club tables they produce are set out below.
The calculation uses the accounts each club filed at Companies House (for Manchester United, the annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission). United's financial year ended in June 2026 and the other 19 clubs' years ended between May and July 2025, so transfers after each year end are not in the tables. For the 2026/27 test, the revenue side uses the 2025-26 accounts, and player trading counts up to and including the January window. The Green and Red Thresholds and how the sanctions work are explained in our column on the SCR rules.
Published accounts and the official calculation don't take in the same costs and income. Staff costs in the accounts cover every employee, administrative and commercial staff and assistant coaches included, while SCR counts only contracted players and the head coach and also leaves out the costs of the women's team and the academy. The official calculation uses estimated revenue fixed before the season as the denominator, with a £15m floor on commercial income. Only gross profit from merchandise goes in, and only net profit from non-football events held at the stadium; the rules also allow an adjustment for clubs that outsource catering or retail, adding back the difference from running it themselves. My estimates add one financial year's profit on player sales as it stands, whereas the official calculation averages profit and loss on sales over roughly three years. The bigger a year's sale profits compared with other years, the more likely my estimate for that year is to come out below the official figure.
On Premier League accounts, Estimate A runs from 64% to 106%
Estimate A is (total staff costs + amortisation and impairment of player registrations) ÷ (revenue + profit on player sales). Amortisation of goodwill and software is left out. Some agents' fees sit inside the amortisation charge, but I haven't added them as a separate item. Of the filings I checked, Crystal Palace's accounts list player wages separately, at £110.83m for 2024-25, about 75% of total staff costs of £148.29m. Estimate B runs the same calculation on the assumption that 75% of total staff costs are attributable to players and the head coach. It applies one club's proportion to every other club, so it too rests on an assumption. Both are rounded to the nearest whole number. Our column on transfer accounting covers how amortisation works.
The table below ranks, by Estimate A, the 15 clubs that have been in the Premier League without a break from 2024-25 to this season.
| Club | Year end | Estimate A | Estimate B | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | June 2025 | 106% | 90% | Holding company's consolidated accounts |
| Nottingham Forest | June 2025 | 105% | 87% | Club-only accounts |
| Fulham | June 2025 | 97% | 79% | |
| Newcastle | June 2025 | 97% | 80% | Uses profit on disposal of player and staff registrations; profit on disposal of fixed assets and of a subsidiary excluded |
| Brentford | June 2025 | 89% | 73% | Profit on Mbeumo and other sales falls in the following year |
| Everton | June 2025 | 89% | 72% | Retail and catering outsourced |
| Aston Villa | June 2025 | 88% | 72% | Women's team moved out of the group during the year |
| Bournemouth | June 2025 | 83% | 69% | Club-only accounts; large profit on player sales |
| Brighton | June 2025 | 82% | 69% | Revenue includes £20.3m from residential and commercial development |
| Crystal Palace | June 2025 | 77% | 63% | Shows player wages separately |
| Manchester City | June 2025 | 73% | 60% | Club-only accounts; retail outsourced |
| Liverpool | May 2025 | 72% | 58% | Holding company's consolidated accounts |
| Manchester United | June 2026 | 70% | 60% | Year to June 2025: 71% and 60% |
| Arsenal | May 2025 | 69% | 58% | Includes £15.24m impairment |
| Tottenham | June 2025 | 64% | 54% | Revenue includes non-football events |
The other five clubs were either promoted this season or have accounts from a Championship season, so they can't be ranked with the table above.
| Club | Year end | Estimate A | Estimate B | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coventry | May 2025 | 109% | 91% | Championship accounts. Promoted this season |
| Leeds | June 2025 | 94% | 78% | Championship accounts. Promoted for 2025-26 |
| Hull City | June 2025 | 80% | 64% | Championship accounts. Promoted this season. Staff costs exceed revenue |
| Sunderland | July 2025 | 75% | 59% | Championship accounts. Promoted for 2025-26. Profit on player sales exceeds revenue |
| Ipswich | June 2025 | 65% | 54% | These accounts cover a Premier League season. Championship in 2025-26, promoted this season |
Chelsea and Forest are the highest on both estimates
Chelsea and Nottingham Forest are above 100% on Estimate A, and even Estimate B, which takes a quarter of staff costs out, leaves them at around 90%. Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham, the clubs with big revenues, take the bottom five places. Seven clubs in the first table are above 85% on Estimate A and two on Estimate B. Those numbers come from accounts one or two seasons old, put through a formula that isn't the official one, so they don't mean any of these clubs will be over the Green Threshold in the official test.
Clubs in Europe have UEFA's 70% to meet as well
UEFA calculates its ratio by calendar year and builds its own denominator, so the same club ends up with a different figure from its Premier League ratio. UEFA's calculation is set out in our column on UEFA's 70% rule.
On 30 June 2026 UEFA fined nine clubs whose ratios for calendar year 2025 were above 70%, and four of them were English. Aston Villa's fine was €22.5m (€15m of it conditional), and because the breach was classed as significant, Villa also face limits on registering new players for UEFA competitions in 2026/27. Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest were fined too, and all four clubs are in the top seven on Estimate A in the first table. According to reports, Villa are the only one of the four playing in a UEFA competition again this season.
La Liga publishes each club's limit
La Liga, the league Atlético play in, publishes each club's LCPD, its squad cost limit. In the 2026/27 list released in September 2026, Atlético's figure was about €361.29m, third in the top flight behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. The last section of our SCR column compares the LCPD with SCR.