How much can Lincoln City spend under SCR?

Lincoln City has a guaranteed SCR spending limit of £7.2m — 85% of estimated football revenue of £8.5m. If the owner uses the full equity top-up, the ceiling rises to £23.2m.

What is Lincoln City's SCR headroom?

Lincoln City's estimated SCR headroom is −£320k — the difference between their 85% limit of £7.2m and their estimated £7.5m squad cost. With the owner top-up, the max allowance rises to £23.2m. Squad cost is 88.8% of revenue, which is Balanced.

Championship SCR

How much can Lincoln City spend?

Under the EFL's Squad Cost Ratio rules, Lincoln City have a guaranteed spending limit of £7.2m — 85% of estimated football revenue of £8.5m. Against their estimated squad cost that is £320k short. If the owner injects the maximum top-up (£16m/season), the ceiling rises to £23.2m.

Lincoln City: the SCR breakdown

Estimated revenue (football) reported £8.5m
85% SCR limit (no owner top-up) £7.2m
Estimated squad cost reported £7.5m
Headroom vs 85% limit −£320k
+ Max owner equity top-up (if used) £16m
Max spending allowance (with top-up) £23.2m
Headroom vs max allowance +£15.7m

Balanced - squad cost is 88.8% of revenue

What this means

On these estimates, Lincoln City are spending above the 85% Green Threshold but within reach of it - the kind of position the owner top-up allowance is designed to cover. Manageable, but not unlimited.

Summer 2026 window vs SCR headroom

No disclosed net-spend figure for the summer 2026 window. Press-reported transfer fees for Lincoln City could not be reconciled closely enough to publish a net figure, so this site records nothing rather than guessing — a reporting gap, not a sign they spent nothing.

Window spend (gross) reported £4.3m

Re-researched 2026-09-06: no new information found on Erik Ring's move to Kilmarnock or Jack Moylan's move to Cardiff City, both still unconfirmed fees. Spend remains £4.3m, the club-record fee for Mikkel Ladefoged from Vasteras SK, now corroborated across three named outlets so upgraded to 'reported'. Sales/net_spend stay null.
Source.

Spending beyond calculated headroom is not automatically a breach: transfer fees are amortised over the contract, sales offset signings, and none of it reaches SCR squad cost until the next accounts are filed. Every club's window spend vs headroom →

Old rules vs new: PSR compared to SCR

Under the old PSR system, clubs were judged on total losses over three years, not on what they spent on the squad as a share of revenue. Here's how Lincoln's position compares under both sets of rules.

Old PSR (loss-based)	New SCR (revenue-based)
3-year losses: £8.5m estimated Limit: £15m Headroom: +£6.5m 2022/23-2024/25 (League One)	Squad cost: £7.5m 85% limit: £7.2m · Max (with top-up): £23.2m Headroom: −£320k Based on £8.5m revenue

Losses are REPORTED and summed from the club's own accounts summary (year ended 30 June 2025): 2022/23 £2,636k, 2023/24 £2,981k, 2024/25 £2,881k, a signed three-year result of -£8,498k. The LIMIT is estimated, not reported. The £39m Championship PSR allowance applies only to a club that spent all three assessment years in the Championship. Lincoln spent this entire window in League One, where the EFL's Division 1 allowance is £15m over three years (£5m per season), so £15m is the applicable figure for this window and is what is stored. As Lincoln move up, the limit blends: each season is weighted by the division it was played in - Championship seasons at £13m each and League One seasons at £5m each - so their 2026/27 assessment window, still containing two League One years, carries a blended limit well below £39m rather than the full Championship allowance. On the stored window the -£8,498k result sits comfortably inside the £15m League One limit, and Lincoln were compliant. League One's binding constraint in practice was SCMP, a wage-to-turnover cap, not PSR.

Note on this club's figures. BASIS: last-filed audited accounts for the year ended 30 June 2025 - a LEAGUE ONE season (Lincoln finished 11th). Filed at Companies House 14 Jan 2026 as medium-company accounts. Both figures come from the same statement, so revenue and squad_cost share one basis. Rebased 2026-09-03 from the previous 2023/24 placeholder. Revenue is the reported turnover of £8,478k (2024: £6,977k), up ~22% and above £8m for the first time; components were matchday £2,852k, central distributions and grants £2,275k, commercial/hospitality/retail £1,910k, academy grants and fundraising £776k, football fortune and misc £665k. Part of the matchday rise is presentational: bringing bar and catering in-house inflated both turnover and costs by about £0.45m. squad_cost is the reported TOTAL STAFF COSTS line of £7,526k (2024: £6,938k), the club-wide payroll including commercial and administrative staff, not an SCR-basis playing-squad cost - SCR squad cost would be lower, so the ratio here reads high. It supersedes the previous placeholder (2023/24: revenue £6,977k, wages £5,120k); note the £5.12m figure did not match the filed £6,938k staff-costs line for that year. The accounts also record player-trading profits exceeding £0.5m in 2024/25 (mainly Lukas Jensen to Millwall), which is NOT netted into the stored revenue. FORWARD CONTEXT ONLY, deliberately not stored and not paired with this League One revenue: Capology estimates via Football League World (14 July 2026) put Lincoln's 2026/27 CHAMPIONSHIP wage bill last of 24 clubs at about £103,000 per week (~£5.4m/yr on that basis; a related summary quoted ~£5.8m/yr) - a Capology playing-squad estimate, a narrower measure than the £7,526k total staff costs above and therefore not comparable. Championship revenue will also rebase sharply upward on promotion (central distributions rise from roughly £2m in League One to around £11m), so a same-basis Championship row must wait for the 2026/27 accounts or a published forward projection. Against the stored League One figures the ratio is not a meaningful Championship compliance signal.
Source.

Compare Lincoln with another club

Lincoln vs Bolton: two promoted clubs on League One revenue

Millwall Blackburn Rovers Swansea City Preston North End Bolton Wanderers Charlton Athletic

← All Championship SCR clubs ranked by SCR headroom

Figures are illustrative estimates from published accounts, named analyst estimates and public reporting, not official SCR submissions. SCR uses adjusted football revenue, which differs from headline turnover. Last reviewed 2026-09-03. Full rules explainer →