Johannes Read, Senior Policy and Data Analyst at City-REDI, examines the trend of northern and Midlands teams losing out in English football.
On the recent footballing wins and the growing trend in southern clubs taking home trophies, Dr Read said:
“As this season of football ends, a trend in English football has become increasingly clear. That is, the balance of power in English football is skewed towards the wealthiest, most affluent areas of the country. We must take this shift seriously.
“This month, Aston Villa won the Europa League, their first European trophy for 44 years, whilst Arsenal has won the Premier League, and will be playing in the final of the Champions League. This can be a cause for celebration of the strength of English football, but my analysis shows the most successful clubs have moved from capital cities, then to regional cities, and back again.
“Over half of the finalists in the Champions League/European Cup in the 1960s and 1970s were from capital cities. This fell in the 1980s (20%) and 1990s (10%). Now, more clubs from capital cities are reaching the finals of top European competitions again in the 2000s (30%), 2010s (40%) and 2020s (50%). This trend is mirrored in Europe’s second-tier competition in the UEFA Cup/Europa League.
“In the Premier League, there is a similar shift in the balance of power. This time, it is towards the south of England at the expense of teams from the North and the Midlands.
“This analysis found the share of clubs from northern England has steadily fallen from 57% in the 1960s to 40% today. Midlands clubs’ share in the top division has also fallen from 25% in the 1960s to 11% in the 2020s. This decline has come at the expense of the growing presence of clubs in the south of England, growing from 18% in the 1960s, to making up 49% of Premier League clubs in the 2020s.
“The same trend exists in non-league football, where the line separating the North/South regional divisions has steadily moved further south. When the National League North/South divisions first set up in 2004/05, the dividing line flowed across the Midlands through Worcester, Redditch and Hinckley. Fast-forward to today, and the 2026/27 National League North includes teams from Merthyr, Oxford, Bedford and King’s Lynn.
“The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been introduced to improve the financial resilience and preserve the heritage value of football. But the IFR alone cannot change this southwards trend. The changes lie in fundamentally shifting the UK’s economy to support smaller and medium-sized places across the north of England and the Midlands.”
For more information, please contact Ellie Hail, Communications Officer, University of Birmingham at e.hail@bham.ac.uk or alternatively on +44 (0)7966 311 409. You can also contact the press office on +44 (0) 121 414 2772.
Assistant Professor
Dr Rhodes' research leverages large multi-omics datasets to investigate how pathogenic fungi emerge and evolve.
