Scottish football has been afflicted by financial problems since the collapse of the Setanta deal. Hibernian are one of the more successful clubs, but their financial position has deteriorated over the years and they have only just managed to stay in the black.
Scottish football has been afflicted by financial problems since the collapse of the Setanta deal. Hibernian are one of the more successful clubs, but their financial position has deteriorated over the years and they have only just managed to stay in the black.
Revenues fell 8 per cent to £7.1m and the pre-tax profit went down from £686,000 to £139,000. Only profits from transfers stopped the club from slipping into a pre-tax loss as its operating loss increased from £570,000 to £1m. The wage bill went up from £4.7m to £4.8m and is worryingly high at 68 per cent of turnover compared with 61 per cent in the previous year. Net debt was £4.1m at 31 July, an increase of £500,000.
In 2007, when Hibs won the League Cup, and had a smaller wage bill, pre-tax profits were £7l4m. The wage bill was then 41 per cent of turnover.
Turnover this year was affected by a reduction in season ticket prfices because of the closure of the East Terrace in Februray 2010 to make way for the new East Stand. This boosts the capacity of Easter Road to 20,400.
Some 90 per cent of HFC Holding’s shares are held by Sir Tom Farmer, the founder of the Kwik-fit garage chain.