Thursday 6 October 2022

Club makes £6.8m loss

The accounts for club holding company Clear Ocean Capital for 2020/21 have been published.   Once interest depreciation and amortisation are taken into account, the loss before taxation for the year was £6.8m on turnover of £6.32m for a 10-month period.   After taxation it was £5.1m.   Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has pointed out that the operating loss was £210,000 a week.

66 per cent of income (£4.2m) came from Premier League and EFL central distributions.   Commercial (£1.6m) accounted for 25 per cent.  There was a large increase in streaming income, but this was offset by a decrease in sponsorship and non-matchday events.  Other (including Valley Gold, £163k)) was £380k and match day was £232k (Covid).

Profit on transfer fees amounted to £5.6m, but amortisation reduced this to a net profit of £3m in the accounts.   Selling on fees were obtained in relation to Lookman, Grant, Dijksteel and Pope. £1.9m was paid out on transfer fees, termination payments and agents' fees.

Total staff costs were £7.1m or 112 per cent of turnover

Having loaned the club £10.5m in 2020, T Sandgaard provided an additional £5.4m.  The loans are interest free and repayable on demand.

A third party provided a loan of £350k in December 2021.  This was investment in the fixed assets of the Academy with a view to achieving Category One status.  The loan attracts below inflation interest of 2.5 per cent and is repayable in December 2024,

The report notes: 'The Group derives a significant amount of revenue from ticket sales.  Gate receipts are dependent on match-day attendance, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed how highly clubs are dependent on such income.  Gate receipts are dependent on the team's performance on the pitch, and in turn the team's performance is reliant on the quality of coaching and the ability to attract the right players to compete competitively.'  Indeed.

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