The challenge
Substance was first commissioned by the English Football League (EFL) in 2022 to help the EFL to measure, analyse and report upon the community impacts and social value of its 72 Member Clubs over a three-season period (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22).
We were then recommissioned in 2023 to report on two further seasons, culminating in the publication of the national ‘Measuring the Impact of EFL Clubs in the Community’ report in February 2025
How we helped
Substance has now been engaged again to report on the social and economic value of EFL Clubs and Club charities across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
This involves:
- Creating a standardised methodology enabling consistent measurement across all 72 Clubs.
- Designing and deploying a central data portal to collect, integrate and manage Club data, enabling efficient multi-season reporting. We then combine this data with information collected by the EFL and other football partners, as well ONS and other publicly available data sets.
- Implementing structured training, guidance and validation processes to ensure data is accurate, consistent and robust, this process being supported by ongoing engagement with Clubs.
- Using advanced methodologies, we translated programme outcomes into monetised social and economic impact, enabling the EFL to evidence the full contribution of Clubs across their communities and more widely.
The current phase of work will culminate in a new national report – and individual economic and social value reports for all 72 EFL Clubs – to be published in the early months of 2027.
