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Premier League clubs owe 56% of Europe's football debt

Portsmouth's debt is not included in the report © Getty Images

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A report to be released by UEFA on the financial wellbeing of European football will reveal that Premier League clubs owe 56 percent of the continent's total footballing debt, raising further questions about why English football's finances have been allowed to spiral out of control.

The biggest worry for Premier League clubs is that both West Ham and financially stricken Portsmouth are not even included in the official report, called The European Footballing Landscape, as their monetary problems prohibited them from being given UEFA licenses, meaning that the figures for English clubs would be even higher.

Details of the report, released in the Guardian on Wednesday, reveal that the combined debts of the 18 Premier League clubs, excluding West Ham and Pompey, sit at £3.5 billion, with two of England's biggest clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool, owing around £1 billion between them.

The figure is more than all other European leagues combined and around four times the figure for La Liga, the second most indebted division. As the report analyses the 2007-08 annual accounts of all 732 clubs licensed by UEFA, the Premier League's actual debt is undoubtedly higher, as the interest payments for clubs like United and Liverpool have increased.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino pointed to the crisis at Portsmouth as the latest evidence that financial reforms are needed in European football.

"The Portsmouth example shows something must be done to help the clubs be more sustainable," he said. "The English Premier League clubs have higher revenues, but it is worrying to see such huge debt. If it is borrowed to fuel spending on players, the problem comes when you cannot borrow any more money and can no longer pay the debts."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.