Ergun Huseyin

What will happen to Tottenham if they get relegated? The first thing to understand is that relegation does not cancel a single contract. Of course, every player will wake up the next morning still legally employed by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Their contracts are valid and binding regardless of which league the club is playing in. Nothing changes on paper. Now, the contracts may remain, but some clauses MAY be activated. One of those clauses is “the relegation clause”. There are two types of relegation clauses that appear in Premier League contracts. The first is a wage reduction clause, which automatically cuts a player's salary by a set percentage if the club goes down. The standard figure quoted across the industry is around 20 to 50 percent, depending on how the clause was negotiated. David Ornstein of The Athletic has confirmed that most Tottenham players have these clauses, inserted by Daniel Levy before his departure, with reductions of approximately 50 percent. The second type is a relegation release clause, which gives the player the right to leave for a predetermined fee if the club is relegated. Both types exist in the same squad, sometimes in the same contract. That said, a case of relegation would still be scary for Tottenham. Tottenham's total revenue for the year ended June 2025 was £565 million, with TV and media income of £127 million that season alone. In the Championship, even with parachute payments, that broadcast income drops from approximately £190 million to around £45 million. Parachute payments are structured at 55 percent of the Premier League equal share in year one, dropping to 45 percent in year two and 20 percent in year three. They are designed to cushion the fall. They do not come close to replacing what was lost. Financial analysts who have examined the Spurs-specific situation estimate a first-year revenue drop of between £200 million and £260 million. The commercial picture even complicates it for them. Tottenham's shirt deal with AIA, worth approximately £40 million per year, contains relegation clauses, and AIA have already confirmed they will not be renewing when the deal expires after the 2026/27 season. Their Nike kit deal, worth around £40 million annually and running to 2033, would face pressure though likely a smaller reduction given its long-term structure. A long-standing commercial partner has already cut ties ahead of this summer, reportedly citing on-pitch underperformance as a deciding factor. There is one additional constraint that often goes unmentioned. The EFL operates a Salary Cost Management Protocol in the Championship that caps wage bills at 55 percent of a club's turnover. With Tottenham's revenue collapsing and their wage bill remaining large even after relegation clause reductions, this regulatory ceiling would force further issues on top of everything else- as the quality of players they can sign would reduce drastically. Tottenham's net debt as of June 2025 stood at £831 million, almost entirely tied to the financing of their stadium. That debt continues regardless of league position. The interest payments continue. The unpaid transfer instalments to other clubs, reported at over £300 million, continue. The stadium generates significant non-football revenue through NFL games, concerts and events, which gives them more resilience than most relegated clubs would have, but it does not plug a £200 million hole. The players who have relegation release clauses will activate them and leave. The players who do not will be sold because the club needs the cash. But here is the part that rarely gets discussed: some players will not attract the offers needed to move them on. A Championship player on Premier League wages is an expensive problem, and if no buying club meets the asking price, that player stays on the wage bill regardless, draining resources the club desperately needs elsewhere. This is precisely how clubs that intend to bounce back end up falling further than they planned. Sunderland are the cautionary tale. They went down, could not shift the players nobody wanted, and dropped through to League One. The squad that comes through the other side of that summer will look almost nothing like the one that went down. And returning from the Championship is not guaranteed. Stoke City spent ten seasons in the Premier League and have not been back since 2018. Relegation for a club of this size and this debt structure is not a bad season followed by a recovery year. It is the beginning of a restructuring that could define the next decade. My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

israel_ajoje's tweet photo. What will happen to Tottenham if they get relegated?

The first thing to understand is that relegation does not cancel a single contract. Of course, every player will wake up the next morning still legally employed by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Their contracts are valid and binding regardless of which league the club is playing in. Nothing changes on paper. Now, the contracts may remain, but some clauses MAY be activated. One of those clauses is “the relegation clause”.

There are two types of relegation clauses that appear in Premier League contracts. The first is a wage reduction clause, which automatically cuts a player's salary by a set percentage if the club goes down. The standard figure quoted across the industry is around 20 to 50 percent, depending on how the clause was negotiated.

David Ornstein of The Athletic has confirmed that most Tottenham players have these clauses, inserted by Daniel Levy before his departure, with reductions of approximately 50 percent.

The second type is a relegation release clause, which gives the player the right to leave for a predetermined fee if the club is relegated. Both types exist in the same squad, sometimes in the same contract.
That said, a case of relegation would still be scary for Tottenham.

Tottenham's total revenue for the year ended June 2025 was £565 million, with TV and media income of £127 million that season alone. In the Championship, even with parachute payments, that broadcast income drops from approximately £190 million to around £45 million.

Parachute payments are structured at 55 percent of the Premier League equal share in year one, dropping to 45 percent in year two and 20 percent in year three. They are designed to cushion the fall. They do not come close to replacing what was lost. Financial analysts who have examined the Spurs-specific situation estimate a first-year revenue drop of between £200 million and £260 million.

The commercial picture even complicates it for them. Tottenham's shirt deal with AIA, worth approximately £40 million per year, contains relegation clauses, and AIA have already confirmed they will not be renewing when the deal expires after the 2026/27 season.

Their Nike kit deal, worth around £40 million annually and running to 2033, would face pressure though likely a smaller reduction given its long-term structure. A long-standing commercial partner has already cut ties ahead of this summer, reportedly citing on-pitch underperformance as a deciding factor.

There is one additional constraint that often goes unmentioned. The EFL operates a Salary Cost Management Protocol in the Championship that caps wage bills at 55 percent of a club's turnover.

With Tottenham's revenue collapsing and their wage bill remaining large even after relegation clause reductions, this regulatory ceiling would force further issues on top of everything else- as the quality of players they can sign would reduce drastically.

Tottenham's net debt as of June 2025 stood at £831 million, almost entirely tied to the financing of their stadium. That debt continues regardless of league position. The interest payments continue. The unpaid transfer instalments to other clubs, reported at over £300 million, continue.

The stadium generates significant non-football revenue through NFL games, concerts and events, which gives them more resilience than most relegated clubs would have, but it does not plug a £200 million hole.

The players who have relegation release clauses will activate them and leave. The players who do not will be sold because the club needs the cash. But here is the part that rarely gets discussed: some players will not attract the offers needed to move them on.

A Championship player on Premier League wages is an expensive problem, and if no buying club meets the asking price, that player stays on the wage bill regardless, draining resources the club desperately needs elsewhere. This is precisely how clubs that intend to bounce back end up falling further than they planned. Sunderland are the cautionary tale.

They went down, could not shift the players nobody wanted, and dropped through to League One.
The squad that comes through the other side of that summer will look almost nothing like the one that went down. And returning from the Championship is not guaranteed. Stoke City spent ten seasons in the Premier League and have not been back since 2018.

Relegation for a club of this size and this debt structure is not a bad season followed by a recovery year. It is the beginning of a restructuring that could define the next decade.

My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

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Ergun Huseyin @Ergun119

3 months ago

@JonnyH3232 @tehTrunk @Billie_T If he gets us a few draws and keeps us up Jonny, that’ll do, otherwise I seriously can’t see where our next point is coming from!