SCR enforcement calendar 2026/27: every date that decides a points deduction, levy or embargo

Manchester United release their first annual accounts covering a full 2025/26 Premier League season under the SCR regime, published at 7:00am EST via a Form 6-K filing. The figures give the first real look at how a top-half PL club's wage bill, amortisation and agents' fees sit against the 85% green threshold under the new rules.

Manchester United plc Form 6-K, 9 September 2026

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Every Premier League club submits its audited 2025/26 Annual Accounts, Player ID Table, October In-Season Financial Adjustments and Confirmation Statement - feeding both the 2025/26 True-Up and the estimates used at the 1 March Compliance Test. Promoted clubs sit their SSR Liquidity and Positive Equity Tests on this date, and the final legacy PSR Form 3A (for the period ending 2025/26) is also due.

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Appendix 2 Rule B.6; Appendix 3 Rule A.1.49; Section E (PSR Form 3A)

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Championship clubs file mid-season financial data to the EFL. Separately, the 95% Additional Reporting Threshold is not tied to this date at all - it is a continuous Rule 9.1 obligation to notify the League "forthwith" whenever Player & Manager Related Expenditure exceeds, or is likely to exceed, 95% of the permitted maximum. Missing either submission is a breach that can trigger the Rule 11 embargo consequences.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Rule 5.5 and transitional Rule 16.2.2; Rule 9.1 (Additional Reporting Threshold)

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The Independent Football Regulator opens its application window for clubs to obtain a provisional operating licence under the Football Governance Act 2025, running until 26 February 2027. Every club in the top five men's divisions needs a provisional licence to compete in 2027/28, alongside - not instead of - each competition's own SCR/SCMP financial rules.

IFR Licensing Rules and Guidance (Football Governance Act 2025)

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League One and League Two clubs submit mid-season figures under the Salary Cost Management Protocol. Any club forecasting to fail the SCMP Requirement becomes subject to a registration embargo under Rule 9.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Parts 2 and 3, Rule 4.4

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The 31 December annual-accounts deadline applies to Championship clubs (plus any club that was in the Championship the previous season) - League One and League Two clubs instead file by the earlier of their Companies House deadline or 31 March. The same date closes UEFA's calendar-2026 squad cost measurement period, which is what Aston Villa's and Chelsea's conditional CFCB fines depend on.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Regulation 16.2.1 and Appendix 5 Rule 5.6; UEFA CL&FS Regulations Art. 94

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The winter transfer window opens across English football. For the Championship this is also when real-time SCR testing begins under the 2026/27 transitional rule - registrations that would push a club over the SCR Requirement can be refused from this window onward, since summer 2026 was exempt.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Regulation 43.3.1; Appendix 5 Rule 16.2.3

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The January transfer window closes at 23:00 (31 January 2027 falls on a Sunday, hence Monday 1 February). Any Championship club still outside SCR compliance at this point is referred to the independent Club Financial Review Panel, which can impose a registration embargo restricting further transfer activity until the club's position improves.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Regulation 43.4; Appendix 5 Rule 11.11

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Unlike the Championship's window-close trigger, League One and League Two clubs have a fixed compliance date: any club non-compliant with the SCMP Requirement on 1 February, or on any later date, stays under embargo and is referred to the Club Financial Review Panel.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Parts 2 and 3, Rule 11.4

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The Premier League Board tests each club's estimated squad cost against estimated football revenue - after October in-season adjustments and January transfer business - against the Green and Red Thresholds. At or under Green means compliant and a Positive Feedback Loop; over Green triggers a Breach Notification and the later Accounts Confirmation Test; over Red is an immediate SCR Sporting Sanction (points deduction).

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Appendix 2 Rules A.1.57 and C.2

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Championship clubs file both their interim accounts and their Future Financial Information by this date. It also lands exactly nine months after a 30 June year-end, which is the Companies House filing deadline under the Companies Act 2006 for clubs on that year-end.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Regulations 16.12 and 16.17; Companies Act 2006 (9-month filing period)

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Championship clubs make their pre-season SCR submission for 2027/28 by 30 April, or within seven days of divisional status being confirmed if that comes later; a club relegated from the Premier League instead files by the last working day before the summer window opens. Any owner funding relied on in the calculation must be evidenced by an SH01 filed before the submission itself.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Rules 5.1-5.2; Annex C para 1.11.2 (SH01)

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The Independent Football Regulator is aiming to decide provisional-licence applications by the end of May 2027, ahead of the leagues' AGMs. This timetable currently appears only in law-firm summaries rather than an IFR-published date, so treat it as indicative.

IFR provisional licensing timetable (Football Governance Act 2025)

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League One and League Two clubs file their Future Financial Information by 31 May. The same deadline also catches any Championship club relegated between 31 March and 31 May.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Regulation 16.17

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Only clubs issued a Breach Notification at the 1 March Compliance Test sit the Accounts Confirmation Test, run on Provisional Accounts due by 1 June - the Handbook fixes that input deadline, not the date the test itself is run. At or under 85% means compliant and a Positive Feedback Loop; over 85% means a Levy (finalised at True-Up against audited accounts due 31 October) and a Negative Feedback Loop cutting next season's allowance by the size of the overspend.

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Appendix 2 Rules B.2, D.1-D.3, A.1.39/A.1.44

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Clubs subject to the Accounts Confirmation Test file Provisional Accounts and a Confirmation Statement of League Revenue Items by 1 June, the inputs the test itself runs on. A club still in a UEFA competition on 31 May gets five working days after its European involvement ends, and promoted clubs have until 30 June.

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Appendix 2 Rules B.2, B.3, B.5

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League One clubs make their pre-season SCMP submission ahead of 2027/28; League Two's equivalent Pre-Season Submission Date falls two weeks later, on 30 June. Because thresholds vary by club - higher for those recently relegated from a higher division - each submission is checked against that club's own limit rather than a single divisional line.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Part 2, 'Pre-Season Submission Date' and Rule 4.1

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The date is inferred from the pattern of UEFA's prior First Chamber decisions (4 July 2025, 30 June 2026) rather than a published fixture. Villa's 30 June 2026 decision fined them EUR22.5m, of which EUR15m was conditional, plus a List A registration restriction for 2026/27; Chelsea were fined EUR3m, of which EUR2m was conditional - both conditions depend on continuing to significantly decrease their squad cost ratio across calendar 2026, which this decision is expected to assess.

UEFA CFCB First Chamber decision 30 June 2026; UEFA CL&FS Regulations 2026, Art. 94

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Clubs promoted to the Premier League file their delayed Provisional Accounts and Confirmation Statement by 30 June. The same date is League Two's Pre-Season SCMP Submission, two weeks after League One's equivalent deadline.

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Section E Rule E.12 and Appendix 2 Rule B.3.2; EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Part 3

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The Premier League runs its Short-Term Cost Control (SSR) Working Capital Test on 7 July for every club, including newly promoted ones. Only the Liquidity Test and the Positive Equity Test move to a later 31 October deadline for promoted clubs.

Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Appendix 3 Rules A.1.49 and B.2.2

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Summer 2027 will be the first summer transfer window with live SCR testing in effect, since Rule 16.2.3 disapplied real-time testing for the summer 2026 window. A Championship club forecasting non-compliance after the window closes stays under embargo and can be placed on an agreed budget that may require player sales.

EFL Regulations 2026/27, Appendix 5 Rule 11.10.1; Regulation 43.1-43.2

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