Birmingham City Spent Like a Championship Club to Win League One
A £35m loss to win the third tier sounds absurd. For Birmingham's American owners, it was the plan working exactly as intended.
In the 2024-25 season covered by these accounts, Birmingham City won the League One title under Chris Davies, securing an immediate return to the Championship after relegation from the second tier two years earlier and doing so with one of the most dominant campaigns English football's third tier has seen.
That dominance was bought, not stumbled into. Knighthead Capital's ownership backed a squad built to bulldoze League One, and turnover rose by around 24% to close to £36m, a startling figure for a club at that level, as parachute-adjacent investment and rapidly growing commercial income both kicked in.
The cost was a pre-tax loss of around £35m, a sum more typical of a mid-table Championship club than a League One promotion winner, and net assets remain deeply in deficit at around £120m, reflecting years of heavy investment still working its way through the balance sheet.
Staff costs of around £36m, roughly matching turnover itself, show just how far above League One norms Birmingham's wage bill had already climbed before a ball was kicked in the Championship.
Birmingham's ownership has been explicit that League One was always meant to be a one-season stop. On this evidence, they were prepared to spend whatever it took to make sure it was.
Birmingham City are back in the Championship for the 2026-27 season, their second campaign back at this level after promotion.
Birmingham didn't just win League One, they overwhelmed it financially, and the accounts confirm the promotion was bought well in advance.