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Articles on football club company financial results – interim or full-year.
Net debt at Blackburn Rovers is up to £79.8m from £54.5m as the club struggles to comply with financial fair play rules. £56.8m of the debt takes the form of an interest free loan from owners Venky’s.
The club lost £42.1m, although all sorts of adjustments appear to have been made to the accounts. Turnover was up from £26.9m to £30.4m with media income up by £4.2m.
It is not that often that a football club records a profit, and even remarkable when they achieve in four of the last five years. But that is what Dundee United have done with a profit of £1.218m in the year to June 2014. These figures do not take into account millions made in the transfer market over the summer.
The financial realities of lower league football in Scotland are demonstrated by the latest accounts of Berwick Rangers. Staff were paid on average £143 a week compared with £8,000 at Rangers.
Their last home game saw an attendance that was 10 per cent of capacity. The club is reliant on a good cup run to keep its finances balanced.
The accounts of Leeds United FC are in chaos according to this report. Income last year was down from £28.6m to £25.3m with reductions in all aspects of income including match day and commercial.
As a result there was a £20.4m loss which becomes £22.8m post tax. This means that the club is very likely to incur a transfer ban under the Football League’s financial fair play rules.
Manchester City have claimed that they have achieved ‘financial sustainability’ after reporting much reduced losses of £23m for 2013-14. That figure includes the £16m financial fair play penalty deducted from Champions League payments due to the club. If it had not been this deduction, the club would have been close to break even. They expect to break even next year. In 2011-12 and 2012-13 they made losses of £148.5m.
AFC Telford have made a small profit of £6,070 on turnover of £788,000. Down from £13,000 in 2012-13, it effectively represents a break even position. However, the Conference club deserve credit for making a profit in nine years out of ten given the losses that many clubs make, even at non-league level.
Rangers are to launch a new share issue to raise funds after they revealed losses of £8.3m in the period to 30th June. This was a substantial improvement on the £14.4m loss reported in the previous year. However, they will need the first tranche of money in January to continue trading.
Absence from the Champions League is starting to affect Manchester United’s finances. Revenue was down by just under 10 per cent in the three months to the end of September at £88.7m. In particular, the club made less from its deal with Nike because it was not in the Champions League.
Chelsea are to announce a record profit of £20m in the year to 30 June. They have only once before made a profit in the Abramovich era, a modest £1.5m two years ago. This means that they will have no difficulty in complying with financial fair play (FFP) rules.
Aberdeen FC will be virtually able to clear debts that have hampered them for years as a result of a generous intervention by a local civil engineering company. W M Donald want to put something back into the community and will reduce debts of £15.9m by £14.49m. The cost of servicing the debt was £500,000 a year.