FCV Desirability Index v0.9 · English 92 · 28 October 2026

Desirability Index

The FCV Desirability Index scores the 92 English league clubs from 0 to 100 on what buyers pay for beyond the accounts: heritage, global recognition, fanbase, catchment, location and momentum. The most desirable clubs are Arsenal (88), Tottenham Hotspur (86) and Manchester United (86). Scores as of 28 October 2026.

What goes in

Heritage 30%Recognition 20%Fanbase 25%Catchment 15%5%5%

Heritage and lore · 30%

Seasons in the top flight, all time; Major honours (weighted); Premier League seasons since 1992; Years since founding.

Global recognition · 20%

Wikipedia language editions; English Wikipedia views, last 24 months.

Fanbase depth · 25%

Average home attendance, 2023-25; Attendance vs division median, 2016-25; Stadium capacity; Average division, last 10 seasons.

Catchment · 15%

Population within 30 km; Median resident pay within 30 km; Share of league support within 30 km.

Location and access · 5%

Distance to central London; Distance to a major international airport.

Momentum · 5%

Change in Wikipedia views, year on year; Divisions climbed since 2015; Change in attendance, 2023-24 to 2024-25.

The 92, most desirable first

Search clubsDivision

#	Club	Division	Score	Range	Heritage	Recognition	Fanbase	Catchment	Location	Momentum	Value effect
1	Arsenal	Premier League	88	1–2	87	98	95	77	82	61	+5.2%
2	Tottenham Hotspur	Premier League	86	2–3	88	93	94	77	71	53	+4.6%
3	Manchester United	Premier League	86	1–4	93	100	98	57	58	44	+4.5%
4	Liverpool	Premier League	83	4–7	85	98	93	66	50	48	+3.6%
5	Aston Villa	Premier League	83	4–8	94	92	82	58	75	63	+3.5%
6	Everton	Premier League	81	5–9	93	90	85	63	48	46	+3.0%
7	West Ham United	Championship	81	4–9	73	88	95	75	73	62	+9.9%
8	Chelsea	Premier League	81	5–9	76	97	86	68	87	50	+2.9%
9	Manchester City	Premier League	80	6–9	80	96	93	56	55	55	+2.7%
10	Newcastle United	Premier League	75	10–13	80	90	89	40	49	44	+1.0%
11	Leicester City	League One	73	10–14	74	88	75	59	64	52	+20.0%
12	Sunderland	Premier League	73	11–18	85	82	83	40	35	50	+0.3%
13	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Championship	72	10–15	84	85	70	47	52	69	+5.7%
14	Nottingham Forest	Premier League	71	13–20	83	85	66	42	65	58	-0.3%
15	West Bromwich Albion	Championship	70	14–20	83	72	66	52	70	53	+4.5%
16	Coventry City	Premier League	69	12–23	68	66	71	62	71	89	-0.9%
17	Birmingham City	Championship	69	16–21	73	73	72	51	78	50	+3.9%
18	Southampton	Championship	69	15–22	71	79	73	59	38	48	+3.9%
19	Fulham	Premier League	69	11–26	64	81	59	65	88	85	-1.1%
20	Leeds United	Premier League	68	14–27	64	86	83	46	18	53	-1.4%
21	Derby County	Championship	67	16–26	71	59	80	52	69	63	+3.3%
22	Sheffield Wednesday	League One	67	16–26	83	60	74	45	33	62	+16.7%
23	Crystal Palace	Premier League	67	15–29	59	88	62	68	76	38	-1.7%
24	Bolton Wanderers	Championship	66	18–27	83	63	69	46	35	56	+2.7%
25	Blackburn Rovers	Championship	66	16–32	88	75	52	42	23	72	+2.4%
26	Middlesbrough	Championship	64	22–34	76	67	75	42	13	53	+1.9%
27	Ipswich Town	Premier League	64	26–29	69	68	67	50	44	57	-2.6%
28	Stoke City	Championship	63	25–32	78	60	65	52	41	40	+1.4%
29	Sheffield United	Championship	63	24–34	67	63	82	44	34	37	+1.2%
30	Brighton & Hove Albion	Premier League	62	23–34	45	77	72	60	62	61	-3.1%
31	Burnley	Championship	61	27–38	75	74	56	41	21	50	+0.3%
32	Queens Park Rangers	Championship	60	25–36	62	66	48	64	89	43	-0.3%
33	Charlton Athletic	Championship	59	28–36	54	55	64	63	69	70	-0.6%
34	Watford	Championship	59	29–36	55	66	54	62	78	54	-0.7%
35	Portsmouth	Championship	59	30–37	61	54	64	54	41	82	-0.7%
36	Norwich City	Championship	58	32–40	57	62	69	45	32	50	-1.3%
37	Brentford	Premier League	57	30–41	45	70	47	65	91	67	-4.8%
38	Luton Town	League One	56	33–42	55	57	41	66	91	65	+9.4%
39	Reading	League One	55	37–43	54	50	59	65	59	24	+9.1%
40	Cardiff City	Championship	55	37–43	51	60	65	56	44	15	-2.8%
41	Millwall	Championship	52	38–49	37	57	52	66	80	61	-3.9%
42	Bournemouth	Premier League	52	38–49	44	79	41	53	34	62	-6.4%
43	Huddersfield Town	League One	52	39–48	55	47	66	43	30	25	+6.8%
44	Preston North End	Championship	51	40–49	62	51	52	42	19	40	-4.7%
45	Wrexham	Championship	50	41–52	41	69	42	57	38	69	-4.8%
46	Bristol City	Championship	50	41–54	32	44	64	59	75	51	-5.2%
47	Notts County	League One	49	41–53	63	42	47	31	64	39	+5.2%
48	Wigan Athletic	League One	49	46–50	47	56	52	44	38	41	+5.2%
49	Swansea City	Championship	48	44–54	45	67	50	45	15	28	-5.9%
50	Hull City	Premier League	48	43–55	38	67	58	36	16	61	-7.6%
51	Barnsley	League One	48	45–54	51	42	60	36	29	44	+4.3%
52	Bradford City	League One	48	45–55	48	40	61	39	20	54	+4.3%
53	Oxford United	League One	46	45–55	40	40	44	63	50	68	+3.4%
54	Swindon Town	League Two	45	48–56	54	36	40	56	41	23	+10.9%
55	Blackpool	League One	45	50–59	57	44	42	40	16	26	+2.5%
56	Leyton Orient	League One	42	52–59	40	38	31	62	71	39	+0.7%
57	Bristol Rovers	League Two	40	56–60	33	31	43	50	70	42	+7.5%
58	Plymouth Argyle	League One	40	55–67	30	45	56	36	3	45	-0.7%
59	Milton Keynes Dons	League One	38	55–67	16	34	52	58	69	33	-1.5%
60	Lincoln City	Championship	38	56–65	32	30	38	43	31	93	-10.9%
61	Port Vale	League Two	38	57–64	38	26	34	41	43	80	+6.0%
62	AFC Wimbledon	League One	37	57–68	17	35	36	60	83	55	-2.4%
63	Stockport County	League One	36	60–65	33	24	36	43	63	63	-2.8%
64	Tranmere Rovers	League Two	35	64–68	32	26	32	44	50	59	+4.3%
65	Oldham Athletic	League Two	35	59–72	42	37	21	43	44	18	+4.2%
66	Peterborough United	League One	35	62–73	19	34	42	49	38	48	-4.0%
67	Wycombe Wanderers	League One	34	62–70	29	27	23	54	69	57	-4.1%
68	Doncaster Rovers	League One	34	61–74	36	23	44	27	22	55	-4.1%
69	Gillingham	League Two	34	60–72	26	12	33	73	53	42	+3.8%
70	Northampton Town	League Two	33	68–72	30	20	25	53	50	55	+2.8%
71	Grimsby Town	League Two	32	62–81	46	34	26	16	19	37	+2.6%
72	Barnet	League Two	30	65–81	29	12	9	72	80	36	+1.1%
73	Cambridge United	League One	30	71–79	20	15	25	61	58	45	-7.2%
74	Crewe Alexandra	League Two	30	71–79	38	16	22	34	42	46	+0.8%
75	Chesterfield	League Two	29	69–83	40	8	33	29	38	22	+0.7%
76	Walsall	League Two	29	74–80	29	12	25	42	61	39	+0.3%
77	Bromley	League One	28	70–83	27	14	4	62	72	72	-8.0%
78	Rotherham United	League Two	28	72–84	19	28	34	31	29	34	-0.3%
79	Shrewsbury Town	League Two	28	74–83	30	15	26	44	26	22	-0.3%
80	Mansfield Town	League One	27	72–85	25	12	30	24	44	83	-8.7%
81	Exeter City	League Two	27	75–85	23	19	24	47	18	47	-0.7%
82	Stevenage	League One	27	72–85	17	8	13	66	87	52	-8.9%
83	Burton Albion	League One	25	79–86	18	26	15	41	61	33	-10.1%
84	Cheltenham Town	League Two	24	80–88	27	2	12	55	42	44	-2.4%
85	Crawley Town	League Two	24	77–89	25	5	8	45	91	51	-2.5%
86	Colchester United	League Two	24	83–87	18	12	18	39	55	51	-2.9%
87	Salford City	League Two	23	81–90	18	32	2	36	50	52	-3.4%
88	Rochdale	League Two	22	86–90	21	5	17	42	37	41	-4.1%
89	Newport County	League Two	21	87–91	20	6	11	40	52	53	-4.3%
90	York City	League Two	21	86–90	20	18	15	35	10	45	-4.5%
91	Accrington Stanley	League Two	19	87–91	18	30	8	23	22	17	-6.1%
92	Fleetwood Town	League Two	14	92–92	17	6	12	25	10	14	-9.0%

Range: the club's rank in 90% of 5,000 random re-weightings of the pillars. Value effect: the premium or discount applied to the club's valuation, measured against its division's median score.

How it works

Each of 18 indicators is turned into a percentile rank across the 92 clubs. A pillar is the average of its indicators, and the score is the weighted average of the six pillars. Every input is a public, checkable figure; there are no opinion scores.

In the valuation, a club's premium is its score minus its division's median, divided by 50, times the division cap, times 1.6, held within the cap (Premier League ±10%, Championship ±15%, League One and League Two ±20%). It replaces the old stadium-size premium, and each division is rescaled so its total value is unchanged: the index decides how value is shared between clubs, not how much there is.

Does it hold up?

Correlation with filed revenue, within division: 0.67
The same, attendance measures removed: 0.70
Percentile vs z-score scoring (Spearman): 0.986
Lowest agreement with one pillar removed: 0.979
Typical 90% rank range: 9 places

Sources: Wikipedia league season and honours articles, Wikidata, Wikimedia page views, ONS population and earnings (via Nomis). Phoenix clubs are scored on their own record (AFC Wimbledon since 2002). Full detail on the methodology page.