Why does it matter whether you use turnover or adjusted revenue?

Because the difference can move a club across a threshold. A club with heavy player trading looks far worse on turnover alone. On this site's figures the average Premier League club's ratio is 13.0 percentage points lower on adjusted revenue than on turnover.

Why average player sales over three seasons?

One big sale can make a single year look freakishly healthy. Smoothing over three seasons stops a club spending against a windfall that will not repeat. Bournemouth are the classic case: one year of sales puts them under 70%, but smoothed they are above 85%.

The number under the line

What is adjusted football revenue?

Q: What is adjusted football revenue?

The denominator of the Squad Cost Ratio. It is a club's football revenue (broadcasting, matchday, commercial and stadium-hosted events) plus net profit on player sales, with sales of assets to owner-linked entities excluded. Most analysts, and this site, average the player-sale profit over three seasons.

SCR is squad cost divided by adjusted football revenue, not turnover. Adjusted revenue is football income plus profit on player sales, averaged over three seasons, with owner-linked asset sales stripped out. Get the denominator wrong and every ratio on the page is wrong.

What goes in

Broadcasting, matchday and commercial income, the same lines as headline turnover.
Stadium-hosted non-football events, such as concerts and NFL games.
Net profit on player sales, smoothed over the last three seasons.

What stays out

Sales of assets to owner-linked entities, such as a hotel or the women's team sold to a sister company.
One-off exceptional items like loan write-offs from an owner.

How much it moves the ratio

The table shows each Premier League club's ratio two ways: against turnover alone and against adjusted revenue with smoothed player-sale profit. The gap is the value of the club's trading model.

Club	On turnover	On adjusted revenue	Gap
Hull City	158.4%	91.5%	−66.9pp
Brighton & Hove Albion	105.5%	73.7%	−31.8pp
Coventry City	111.3%	86.6%	−24.7pp
AFC Bournemouth	103.0%	88.0%	−15.0pp
Everton	83.9%	69.0%	−14.9pp
Manchester City	90.6%	77.4%	−13.2pp
Chelsea	83.0%	70.0%	−13.0pp
Nottingham Forest	89.8%	76.9%	−12.9pp
Fulham	102.0%	89.3%	−12.7pp
Aston Villa	92.5%	82.4%	−10.1pp
Crystal Palace	83.9%	75.2%	−8.7pp
Brentford	84.5%	76.0%	−8.5pp
Newcastle United	76.7%	70.2%	−6.5pp
Tottenham Hotspur	64.6%	59.3%	−5.3pp
Arsenal	61.5%	57.5%	−4.0pp
Manchester United	71.4%	67.8%	−3.6pp
Liverpool	64.5%	61.4%	−3.1pp
Ipswich Town	75.5%	72.5%	−3.0pp
Sunderland	75.4%	73.0%	−2.4pp
Leeds United	65.0%	65.0%	0.0pp

Why three seasons

A single year of sales can be a freak. Bournemouth booked around £91m of player-sale profit in 2024/25 against almost nothing the year before. On that one year they sit under 70%; smoothed over three seasons they are above the 85% limit, which matches the published analyst view. The smoothing is what stops a club spending permanently against a windfall.

Frequently asked

Does the Championship use the same denominator?

Yes, the EFL definition is the same in principle. The rows on this site's Championship page are mostly headline turnover because player-sale profit is less consistently disclosed at that level; each club's note says which. Championship SCR →

Does UEFA use adjusted revenue too?

UEFA's squad cost rule uses a similar adjusted-revenue base but on a calendar-year basis, which is one reason a club can pass one regulator and fail the other. UEFA rule vs Premier League SCR →

SCR explained The SCR levy explained Methodology

Player-sale profit is taken from filed accounts and averaged over whichever of the last three seasons we hold; clubs without that history are shown on the single latest year and say so on their page. Last reviewed 2026-09-03.