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Bristol City 2017/18: Mezzanine
Introduction: The insanity of life in the Championship chasing a place in ‘The Promised Land’ ((c) Alan Green and all other unimaginative commentators) is highlighted in Bristol City’s latest financial results. City were 2nd in the table on 26th December 2017 but were slid to mid table by the end of the season, and with that had to disassemble the squad as the vultures came picking off their best players. Key figures for year to 30 June 18: Bristol City Holdings Ltd Income £25.2 million (up 19%). Wages £27.3 million (up 30%) . Losses before player sales £24.2 million (up 26%) Player signings £12 million Player sales £1.8 million Steve…
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Rangers: Automatic for the people
Introduction 8pm on 31st October is when I’m usually wondering if I can eat all the fun size Mars Bars that haven’t been vacuumed up by local youths dressed in Freddy Kreuger or Gary Neville fright masks trick or treating for Halloween. Instead my email inbox pinged, and something came through about Rangers. Initially I ignored it, couldn’t be important surely, as after all the first team were playing high flying Kilmarnock at the same time. At half-time, having prised myself away from the match on TV, it appeared that Rangers had published their annual results, a good time to bury bad news perhaps? Key figures for 2017/18 Income £32.7m…
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Norwich City: In the Country
Introduction Norwich City Football Club Ltd announced its financial results for the year ended 30 June 2018 recently. Norwich are the third team in last year’s Championship to produce their results, following Hull and Birmingham. It may be a new EFL rule that clubs whose name ends in ‘City’ are legally obliged to publish their accounts before any others, or it may be coincidence, though with Shaun Harvey in charge anything is possible. Any tables for the division as a whole use figures from 2016/17 for other clubs. Norwich finished a forgettable 14th in 2017/18, which, given their financial performance, will have been seen as a bit bobbins by fans.…
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Celtic: Rattlesnakes
Introduction Celtic announced their 2017/18 results in mid-September 2018, but these came in the form of a detailed press release, rather than the full annual report. Like many things in relation to Celtic, it left a few unanswered questions where perhaps it would have been easier to give a fuller story. Having failed to make the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, the club face a challenging season where for the first time in many years there could be a credible challenge to their domination of the domestic game. Ambivalent comments from manager Brendan Rodgers, a Rangers who are getting a lot of attention since the arrival of Steven Gerrard…
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The benefits and perils of taking a football club onto the stockmarket.
Football clubs have a choice of ownership models, here we will look at the two most common corporate identities for investors. On 23rd August 2018 Manchester United plc became the first football club in the world to be worth $4 billion. We know this because their share price finished that day at a record high price of $24.60 on the New York Stock Exchange, where the club’s shares are publicly traded. OnO At around about the same time as United went through this price threshold there were rumours that Liverpool and Chelsea had been subject to takeover bids for about £2 billion, but the actual price is unknown, because both…
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Walsall 2018: Heading Out on the Highway
Introduction Walsall have just published their financial results, the first for a League One club for 2017/18, and, just as they have done for the previous five years, they’ve made a profit and kept their status in that division for the eleventh consecutive year. That seems to be enough to satisfy the ambitions of the club owner, Jeff Bonser, though some fans seem to be fed up with his control of the club, and the way he extracts money from it through owning the stadium. Financial summary Income: £5,853,000 (down 12%) Wages: £3,376,000 million (down 0.3%) Sustainable operating profit £63,000 (down 89%) Wages to income 58% (up from 51%) Player…
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Birmingham City 2018: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Introduction Birmingham City’s parent company Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd, announced its financial results for the year ended 30 June 2018 in October. We wrote about them at the time and can now slightly refine the figures after Birmingam City Football Club plc sent their accounts to the company registrar. Key Figures Income up 7% to £18.8 million Wages up 69% to £38.0 million Trading losses up from £16.1 to £38.8 million Player purchases up from £11.6 to £15.4 million Income Every club must split its income into at least three categories to comply with EFL League recommendations, matchday, broadcasting and commercial. Birmingham’s matchday income rose by 9% last season to…
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Manchester United 2018 Finances: Made of Stone
Introduction Tuesday 25th September 2018 may not go down as a great day in Manchester United’s history, as the club lost in the Carabao Cup to Derby County and there was a very public spat between Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba, but off the field the club announced record revenues for the year ended 30 June 2018. How this was achieved is more to do with the abilities of the marketing department which continues to set a standard that most other clubs can only envy. Earnings this high are likely to ensure that United are once again top or close to the top of the Football Money League when other…
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Hull City 2018: Eye of The Tiger
Introduction Hull City Tigers Limited were the first club to submit their accounts to the government registrar for the 2017/18 season and reported a £24 million profit before tax in the business review. Both the above look good, but things happen for a reason, and there’s more to the early publication and impressive profit than perhaps meets the eye. In the strategic report the board say the following… Hull finished 18th last season, yet scored 70 goals, which was only surpassed by three teams, and conceded 70 too, which was only surpassed by four. They currently lie 21st after nine games, and the former Scunthorpe United physio has not managed…
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Accrington Stanley: The Milkman of Human Kindness
In September 2014 Accrington Stanley were served with a winding up order by the tax authorites. This was one of a series of financial demands that the club had had to deal with as it lurched from crisis to crisis. It was saved at the last minute by a local businessman…and in May 2018 was promoted to League One as Champions. We met Accrington’s owner, Andy Holt, the social media scourge of the Premier League, the EFL and Salford City’s Gary Neville at the National Football Museum recently. He’s kindly not only given us the club accounts in respect of their League Two winning year for 2017/18, but also the…