How Squad Cost Rules compare in the Premier League, the Championship, and other football competitions

In November 2025,^[1] the Premier League voted to bring in cost-based rules, which had been implemented on a shadow basis since the 2024/25 season.^[2] Championship clubs followed suit in May 2026, voting to implement similar rules beginning in the 2026/27 season - a version of which had operated in shadow during the 2025/26 season.^[3]

These rules are referred to as the Squad Cost Rules (SCR),^[4] and broadly speaking, they replace regulations based around the profit earned (as an absolute figure) by clubs with regulations based around the clubs’ on-pitch spending as a percentage of their football-related revenue.

In late July, these new rules were published in full. In this article, we focus on comparing the Premier League SCR with that of the Championship, while touching on some of the other SCR-style regulations impacting domestic clubs.^[5]

Article Overview

• Why do the differences matter?
• What are the principles of SCR?
• What is the Squad Cost Ratio (the “Ratio”)?
• What counts as football-related revenue?
• What counts as on-pitch spending?
• How is compliance assessed?
• What are the sanction mechanics?
• How do the new rules compare to other domestic competitions?
• What is the impact on clubs also playing in UEFA competitions?

While the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) is also concerned with the financial soundness of clubs, it does not assess this through an SCR-based approach. Instead, the IFR focuses on, for example, stress-testing clubs’ financial forecasts, their cashflows, and their sources of funding.^[6]  This article therefore does not consider the IFR further.