# Football finance expert explains Leicester City financial update after £50m loan

**By:** Josh Holland  
**Published:** 2026-07-27T09:51:09Z  
**Source:** [Leicestershire Live](https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-bank-loan-financial-11079022)

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Leicester City have renewed another loan with Australian bank Macquarie secured on Premier League parachute payments.
It has been standard practice for the club to borrow money from the bank. Previously, loans have been taken out to aid cashflow with Premier League central payments, a major source of income, coming intermittently.
City have borrowed money from Macquarie for the best part of a decade now, usually against funds from the Premier League, but also to receive owed transfer fees up front. They have often negotiated sales to be paid in instalments, but then used the bank to receive the full fee immediately.
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 In the latest public accounts, City have secured a £50m loan at 8.3% interest per annum. The club are owed around £81m in unpaid transfer fees, at 30 June 2025, with £28m still due. They have borrowed an additional £61m from Macquarie on these payments, with an average interest rate of 8.02%.
Leicester are now in League One after suffering back-to-back relegations from the Premier League, meaning revenues will drop once again. Accounts released this year show that Leicester lost £71.1m during the 2024/25, despite being in the Premier League.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has later revealed that the loans at the club are 'a bit troublesome', with them paying around £200k a week. Player sales this summer, of which have surpassed the £40m mark, will help offset that.

 "Leicester, in my opinion, still have a hangover from the first time they were relegated from the Premier League," Maguire told LeicestershireLive. "Their wages were unsustainable.
"Yes they've had quite a few fire sales, lots of players have gone, but they're still haemorrhaging cash. In the day-to-day running of the club in 23/24, they spent £32m more than they generated, this is just in the day-to-day running, excluding transfers and interests on loan. In 24/25, they spent nearly £38m more than they brought in.
"Therefore, as a result of that, they're short on funds, they've had to borrow and sell players. What we have seen in recent years is that Leicester have bought and sold players on credit, but the difference is, when they've sold players on credit, they have then cashed in the instalments. It's a glorified payday loan on a corporate level.
"If we take a look at what has happened in the last 12 months, [Kasey] McAteer's instalments of about £8m, they've gone to Macquarie and they have given the club the cash up front - Leicester are paying around 8% interest. James Justin £5, Mads Hermansen £11m. Before that, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Leicester were due to receive two instalments of £10m each, one of which was due just a couple of weeks ago on July 14 2026, but instead they cashed that in early.

 "They're not the only club to do this, Macquarie are one of the most prominent organisation that does this, but based off my figures, Premier League and Championship clubs have got player sales of over £1billion that which they're owed money and they've taken those payments early from specialist lenders such as Macquarie.
"The problem with that is that Leicester still owe a lot of money when it comes to playing purchases. In 2025 accounts, they owed £53m, which they've had to pay in the last 12 months. In that period, Leicester have been in the Championship and have already effectively cashed-in on their parachute payments from Macquarie.
"By the looks of it, they've borrowed from Macquarie in the next 12 months and are going to have to pay another £28m, that's just on players they bought for up to 30 June 2025. You put all of that together, it's pretty nasty.

 "Over the course of the last 10 years, it's cost the club £82m in interest costs on those loans. Some of the loans have been written off by the owner, but there's still amounts due to King Power and whilst most football club owners lend money interest-free, the reason best known to themselves, King Power are charging Leicester City 6% interest on them loans.
"Matthew Benham doesn't do that at Brentford and Tony Bloom doesn't at Brighton. You put these factors together and you can see a cash challenge. You would imagine that there's going to have to be player sales to provide funding to pay the wages and running costs.
"The fear is that other clubs will be aware of the predicament and those player sales might not generate full market value because you have to accept whatever you're offered. Where does it leave the club? It leaves them in a cash challenge.
"Can that be addressed? Well if the owners have the money, problem solved, if they don't have the money, then you have two or three options. One of them is to continue to borrow from the likes of Macquarie, but what have you got when you've sold everything with nothing left, you can only keep selling the family silver a fixed number of times.

 "It looks as though the parachute payments for 26/27 are part of the broader lending agreement, which have nothing to do with transfers. Option number two is that you find somebody else to take over at the club and option number three is that the club goes into administration, which we know has happened with Leicester before.
"There is no indication that Leicester are in that position. I have to stress that, in my view, that is remote. But it's certainly messy. Ideally, somebody comes in and spends a fortune to buy players from the club and that's another source of cash. Clearly that has a detrimental impact on the club bouncing back to the Championship."