All reports relating to financial fair play and annual results need to come with a health warning as it is more likely that a legal challenge will be launched to the Football League’s plans if they crack down hard on leading clubs.
Nottingham Forest have reported losses of £17m for the 2012/13 season compared with £12.2m for the previous season. Forest have made nine permanent signings since these accounts, in addition to four loan deals. With the associated transfer fees and wages involved, the losses over the current season are likely to have significantly increased
All reports relating to financial fair play and annual results need to come with a health warning as it is more likely that a legal challenge will be launched to the Football League’s plans if they crack down hard on leading clubs.
Nottingham Forest have reported losses of £17m for the 2012/13 season compared with £12.2m for the previous season. Forest have made nine permanent signings since these accounts, in addition to four loan deals. With the associated transfer fees and wages involved, the losses over the current season are likely to have significantly increased
Nottingham Forest breached FFP limits in 2012/13, when allowable losses were £10million. Crucially, there were no punishments in place for breaching the rules last season – but there are this season with Sky Bet Championship clubs allowed to lose £8million.
Therefore, if Forest fail to reduce the deficit for the current campaign, they could be hit with fines and a transfer embargo next season.
When asked about the club’s financial situation recently, Reds chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi said that the issue would be addressed in the form of sponsorship deals from several companies in his homeland of Kuwait.
The end-of-year accounts submitted on Wednesday morning showed that staff costs were up from £17.6million in 2011/12 to £21million, with wages accounting for £18.4million, dwarfing the club’s turnover figure of £14.4million. The recommended ratio is 50 per cent rather than over 100 per cent, but the imperative to obtain promotion to the Premier League is a strong one.
Kuwaiti owners, the Al Hasawi family, backed Forest considerably with £35.4million owed to them in the form of interest free loans, which would only be repayable when the club was in a position to do so, according to the accounts.
The average league attendance at the City Ground increased last season from 21,969 to 23,083, with the team performing better on the pitch following their fight against relegation during the 2011/12 campaign.
This also meant there was an increase in income from gate receipts, growing 6% to £7.1million. However, this was offset by a £700,000 reduction in the basic award from the Football League to £1.8million.
Despite the huge losses, according to the directors’ report submitted along with the accounts to Companies House, the finances had stabilised following the takeover by the Al-Hasawi family, who bought the club in the summer of 2012 following the sudden death of previous owner and chairman Nigel Doughty the previous February.
Doughty funded Forest’s losses personally through a loan account and, during more than a decade as owner, was thought to have put close to £100million into the club. At the time of the takeover, Doughty’s estate was owed £85.3million.
As part of the acquisition, the Al-Hasawi family reduced the short-term debt by capitalising a “significant” element of those loans owed to Doughty’s estate.