EFL Squad Cost Ratio · Championship
Championship SCR: how much can every club spend?
The table below ranks all 24 Championship clubs by SCR headroom. Click any club for the full breakdown, or work out any club's limit with the Championship SCR calculator.
| Club | Revenue | 85% limit | Max (+ top-up) | Squad cost | PSR headroom | SCR headroom | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southampton vs Cardiff P | £158.4m reported | £134.6m | £150.6m | £115.8m reported | −£40.6m estimated | +£18.8m | High spending power |
| West Ham United vs Millwall P | £228m reported | £193.8m | £209.8m | £176m reported | +£40.8m estimated | +£17.8m | High spending power |
| Sheffield United vs Burnley | £89m estimated | £75.7m | £91.7m | £58m reported | −£8.5m reported | +£17.7m | High spending power |
| Wrexham | £33.3m reported | £28.3m | £44.3m | £20m reported | — | +£8.4m | High spending power |
| Portsmouth | £24.6m reported | £20.9m | £36.9m | £17.4m reported | +£9.9m estimated | +£3.5m | High spending power |
| Bolton Wanderers vs Lincoln vs Wolves | £20.5m reported | £17.4m | £33.4m | £17.1m reported | — | +£313k | High spending power |
| Lincoln City vs Bolton | £8.5m reported | £7.2m | £23.2m | £7.5m reported | +£6.5m estimated | −£320k | Balanced |
| Bristol City | £40.3m reported | £34.3m | £50.3m | £35.9m reported | −£15m reported | −£1.6m | Balanced |
| Charlton Athletic | £11.2m reported | £9.5m | £25.5m | £12.1m estimated | — | −£2.6m | Balanced |
| Stoke City | £35.4m reported | £30.1m | £46.1m | £33.2m reported | −£27.4m estimated | −£3.1m | Balanced |
| Queens Park Rangers | £28m reported | £23.8m | £39.8m | £27.5m reported | −£15.1m reported | −£3.7m | Balanced |
| Derby County | £31.9m reported | £27.1m | £43.1m | £31.5m reported | +£17m estimated | −£4.4m | Balanced |
| Watford | £26m reported | £22.1m | £38.1m | £28.1m reported | +£59.7m reported | −£6m | Balanced |
| Blackburn Rovers | £23.7m reported | £20.1m | £36.1m | £28.2m reported | +£11m estimated | −£8.1m | Balanced |
| Birmingham City vs West Brom | £35.6m reported | £30.3m | £46.3m | £38.9m reported | −£27.4m reported | −£8.6m | Balanced |
| Middlesbrough | £32.5m reported | £27.6m | £43.6m | £36.4m reported | +£8.8m estimated | −£8.8m | Balanced |
| Preston North End | £20.5m reported | £17.4m | £33.4m | £26.4m reported | −£7.4m estimated | −£9m | Balanced |
| Swansea City | £22.3m reported | £18.9m | £34.9m | £29m reported | −£15.7m estimated | −£10.1m | Balanced |
| West Bromwich Albion vs Birmingham | £30.4m reported | £25.8m | £41.8m | £37.1m reported | −£4.2m reported | −£11.3m | Balanced |
| Millwall vs West Ham | £23.9m reported | £20.3m | £36.3m | £34.2m reported | +£7.6m estimated | −£13.9m | Balanced |
| Norwich City vs Wolves | £39.3m reported | £33.4m | £49.4m | £48.1m reported | −£25.8m reported | −£14.7m | Balanced |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Norwich vs Bolton P | £172m reported | £146.2m | £162.2m | £162m reported | −£22.1m reported | −£15.8m | Balanced |
| Cardiff City vs Southampton | £25.8m reported | £21.9m | £37.9m | £39m reported | −£10.7m reported | −£17.1m | Restricted |
| Burnley vs Sheffield Utd P | £71.7m reported | £60.9m | £76.9m | £82.3m reported | +£40.2m reported | −£21.4m | Restricted |
How to read this table
85% limit is what SCR guarantees: 85% of estimated football revenue, no owner injection required. Max (+ top-up) is the ceiling if the owner injects the full £16m/season — only a minority of clubs will use this.
PSR headroom shows how much room clubs had under the old loss-based system (£39m over 3 years, higher for clubs with recent PL seasons). Positive = was inside the old rules; negative = breached. SCR headroom is squad cost vs the 85% limit only. Compare the two columns to see whether a club is better or worse off under SCR.
Most clubs with large PSR headroom had it because their PL history lifted the £39m limit — not because they were spending conservatively. Under SCR there is no history bonus: every club is judged on this season's revenue.
Parachute clubs (P) have large but temporary revenue boosts from Premier League parachute payments. Their headline headroom can look generous now, but drops sharply once payments end — usually after two or three seasons.
The owner top-up is not a fixed number. The EFL derives it each season from the gap between a first-year parachute payment and the Championship solidarity payment: 25% of that gap per season (about £11.4m in 2026/27), tripled to give the £34.3m rolling three-year allowance, with the £16m annual cap set at 35% of the same gap. Separately, for 2026/27 only, a club whose losses over the previous two seasons did not exceed £10m could opt in to a one-off £13m Headroom Injection, spread as £4.3m a season to the end of 2028/29 and lifting the three-year allowance to £47.3m — at the price of forfeiting any pre-vote transfer income. The table above assumes the standard allowance only; clubs that opted in are not identified publicly.
Status key
How did the 2026 summer window measure up against this headroom? Spending power vs actual spend →
How SCR differs from PSR
Under the old PSR rules, clubs were judged on total losses over three years. SCR instead caps squad spending as a live proportion of revenue — monitored during the season against the SCR compliance calendar's fixed check dates, not after the fact. Breach it and the sanction is a points deduction rather than a fine. The shift rewards clubs with growing income and penalises wage-heavy rosters regardless of player sales.