Private credit funds eye English clubs for loans tied to player values

David Kogan, chair of the independent football regulator (IFR), says 32 clubs are operating with only 30 days’ cash. “If the owner chooses not to pay cash at the end of the month, those clubs go bust.”

That dependence on owners has opened a possible new route for private credit funds: lending to English football clubs against the value of their players and the transfer income those players may eventually generate. A Financial Times investigation published 15 October 2026 said funds had begun examining English clubs as financing targets.

The model centres on a simple timing problem. Clubs may need money during January’s transfer window, when they want to buy a player, and expect to repay the loan from player sales in the following summer window. Francesco Filia, chief executive of Fasanara, said clubs need capital at times that do not always match the arrival of revenue, and that the company’s strategy aims to bridge that gap.

Tifosy and Fasanara have developed squad-value financing models for clubs, deploying arrangements across 5 European countries. Loans in previous European trials were equivalent to approximately 25% of the estimated value of a club’s players.

For lenders, the security lies in potential transfer receipts. A fund holding a guarantee over those proceeds gets priority to collect part of the revenue when a player is sold. It cannot compel the club to sell a particular player.

The attraction for clubs comes as transfer spending reaches new heights. Global spending on player transfers hit a record 10.8 billion euros during summer 2026. The transfer market has created pressure and opportunity for clubs seeking to move players.

English football’s wider financial position is stark. The regulator’s report, titled “State of the Game”, documented a financial crisis across the game. Across the top five English leagues, 94% of clubs made losses in 2025-26. More than 60% of EFL and National League clubs are technically insolvent.

Many are living close to the edge. Some 66% of clubs could not last more than 90 days without fresh owner funding, while 29% said they could not survive beyond 30 days without it. A further 68% have no contingency plan should their owner leave.

Player trading cannot solve every balance-sheet problem. Seventeen clubs across the EFL and National League would still make losses if their players played for free. The IFR has warned of “a dangerous cocktail of rising debt and an over-reliance on owner funding, leaving clubs and their fans at risk”. It says financial “cliff-edges” between and within leagues have grown significantly despite the Premier League’s economic success.

Private credit now offers clubs another source of immediate capital, tied directly to the squad they put on the pitch and the sales they hope to complete. Financial failure has already forced clubs out of the game: Bury FC were expelled from the EFL amid financial difficulties in 2019.