Revealed: Everton, Leicester and Nottingham Forest had the highest wages to turnover ratio in the Premier League in 2022-23 season with all THREE now charged with sustainability breaches

The accounts of Premier League clubs for the 2022-23 season have been published and they do well to explain the current situation that Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Everton find themselves in.

Both Everton and Forest were found to have breached the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules, resulting in a six point and for point deduction respectively.

Leicester, who were relegated last season, are facing a similar fate though are hopeful of delaying this until next term.

And the financial troubles of all three become easier to understand by taking a look at their wages to turnover ratio for the previous year.

A key indicator of sustainability, the wages to turnover ratio in football is the amount of money a club has in outgoings in wages for all of their staff set against the amount of turnover of a club, worked out as a percentage.

The Foxes had the worst ratio of any club in the top flight last season with a massive 116 per cent, up from 85 per cent. This means they were spending £1.16 for every £1 that came in.

Their wage bill climbed from £182m to £205.8m while they suffered a performance-related fall in income during what was a miserable campaign.

Everton, meanwhile, reported an £89.1million loss for the 2022-2023 season – almost twice as much as over the previous year.

Their turnover fell to £172.2million, down £8.9m from 2021-22, while their wage bill rose slightly.

Everton were hit with a six point deduction for breaching sustainability and profitability rules

This resulted in an increase in the club’s total wage-to-turnover ratio  from 90 per cent to 92 per cent. 

Forest’s latest accounts show that their wage-to-revenue ratio was 94 per cent, largely due to an increase to their wage bill of 147 per cent (£144.9m).