How Stoke City's owners wiped away more than £250m of debt in just a few years

Stoke City have laboured in the Championship since relegation from the Premier League in 2018, but the club owners have swallowed the financial cost.

Stoke City have had a difficult time of things in the Championship since their 2018 relegation from the Premier League, but their financial position has been shored up over this time by the owners of the club.

With consecutive home wins against Norwich City and Charlton Athletic, Stoke City's 2026-27 Championship season has suddenly sprung to life. Things had started dismally, with three consecutive defeats sending them to the bottom of the pile, but it doesn't have to take long to change this at this early point in the season, and those six points have lifted the Potters to a far more comfortable-looking 13th place in the table.

But despite these wins, they do remain in the bottom half of the table for now, and that's been a feeling that has become all too familiar to fans over the last decade.

Since relegation from the Premier League in 2018, Stoke have failed to finish in the top half of the Championship table. Add that to their last two seasons in the top-flight, and it's now more than a decade since they last finished above halfway in a league table.

In the Championship, this can become an expensive business. With some of the division's other clubs in receipt of Premier League parachute payments, those who do not receive them are put in a position of having to compete with rivals whose financial means are far, far greater. And when your club finds itself in this position, it's hugely beneficial to have owners who will underwrite any financial losses.

Without parachute payments, intervention from the Coates family has been necessary for Stoke City

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Without the comfort blanket of Premier League parachute payments, the interventions of the Coates family at the club have become crucial in maintaining the solvency of Stoke City in a division in which the ambitions of owners can conflict with the realities of life outside the Premier League.

The family, who made their riches in the gambling sphere through the brand which sponsors the club's stadium, have stepped in on two separate occasions while changing the management structure of the club in order to secure the future of the club.

The first of these came in 2022, shortly after the end of their receipt of parachute payments following their 2018 relegation from the Premier League. At that time, the club were owned by the Bet365 Group. They converted £40 million of loans into equity in the club's holding company and waived £120 million of shareholder loans, effectively wiping £160 million's worth of debt from the club's books.

Then co-chairman John Coates said at the time, "This greatly strengthens the club's balance sheet and also provides more long-term stability for the club." This move relieved a huge degree of financial pressure from the club, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic had affected the financial position of all football clubs.

A 2024 restructure of the club's ownership changed Stoke City behind the scenes

With promotion back to the Premier League having looked no more likely after the 2022 debt conversion, the next big change at Stoke came in 2024, when John Coates became the "outright" owner of the club following a demerger which was implemented by The Bet365 Group.

This move waived a further £90.5 million of debt from the club's balance books, and the results were almost immediate. When they published their annual accounts for 2024-25 in March 2026, it was confirmed that a loss of £25.7 million for the 2023-24 season had been succeeded by a profit of £60.8 million for the following season.

In addition to this, the 2024 changes moved ownership of The bet365 Stadium and their training facilities to the club, further consolidating their position. Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke at the time of the demerger, football finance expert Kieran Maguire said, "It's Bet365 effectively acting like the bank of mum and dad and acknowledging that the money that was owed by the football club, which at one stage was over a quarter of a billion pounds, is never going to be repaid and they are just doing some tidying up."

The costs of not having someone in a position to be able to do this can be plainly seen in the recent history of another Midlands football club. Financial difficulties caused by the pandemic drastically affected the ability of The King Power Group to fund Leicester City, and a breach of PSR rules resulted in a five-point deduction which went a long way towards relegating them from the Championship at the end of the 2025-26 season. They have also endured a torrid start to their League One season under Russell Martin.

The financial position of the Championship, where ambition can often run head-first into reality, can be a harsh environment, but these changes have kept Stoke City's heads above water since their 2018 relegation. In such a deeply flawed system, Stoke