The English Football Thread

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

Yup many tough games in winter/midseason when we are shit anyway so overall a schedule than helps a top 4 challenge more than hindering it. 

[NikkiCFC 8,085]

Looking forward for 10 out of 10. 30 points. Looks very achievable. 

[We Hate Scouse 10,287]

Bournemouth have sacked Gary O'Neil

What a crazy decision after the fantastic job he done there!!

[Vesper 29,213]

On 19/06/2023 at 13:42, We Hate Scouse said:

Bournemouth have sacked Gary O'Neil

What a crazy decision after the fantastic job he done there!!

madness

[Vesper 29,213]

Qatar the lesser of two evils

https://www.football365.com/news/mailbox-man-utd-qatar-jassim-jim-ratcliffe-glazers-saudi-sportswashing

A while ago I sent an e-mail about the takeover of Manchester United. In this e-mail I decried the choice between a Brexit backing tax avoiding twat or a mysterious Qatari Sheikh who realistically is just the public face of Qatar and all their human rights violations in this instance. Several months later, however, with no advancement in the sale despite bids closing well over a month ago, the Glazers have made the decision much easier for me. At this point in time I will take the Qataris and kicking the Glazers out over Jim Ratcliffe and keeping the Glazers around.

This is entirely because of the Glazers. To be absolutely blunt they’re parasites of the lowest order, and they give zero ducks about Manchester United. It’s self-evident that the only thing they care about is the money that they get. This entire sale has been a shambles from start to finish and it’s frankly embarrassing that they’re still trying to play bidders against each other after the bids have closed when what they should have been doing is finalising the sale through a constructive conversation with the winning bid. The fact that it’s taking them well into the summer and they’ll probably still be around in time for the opening of the next season when I’m sure that ETH, not to mention all of the fans, would have liked more certainty and more of a plan including a concrete budget in place for the summer transfer window is highly detrimental to the club and their strategy for the next season. And this is entirely aimed at securing the Glazers a higher bid. That is to say this is not a footballing decision this is a profit driven decision made by people who couldn’t give a fig about Manchester United.

So as much as on a personal level I probably would prefer Sir Jim, if there’s any chance the Glazers might stay with him in charge I have to say I prefer the other bid for a full takeover. Any model which keeps the Glazers on for a cut of any profit that we might generate in the future is anathema to me; they’ve already leeched way too much. They’ve already damaged the club way too much. It’s just a shame that Zilliacus pulled out off the saying what a clown show the process had become. Frankly he seemed to be the only decent person in the running. Now I’ll just have to somehow make my peace with Qatar owning my football club.

[Fulham Broadway 16,977]

Leeches out

 

[Vesper 29,213]

19 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Leeches out

 

the Glazers are vermin

[KEVINAA 110]

Frank Lampard interview.

 

 

Video length - 1 hour 55 minutes.

Uploaded about under 3 hours ago.

The Steven Bartlett Podcast Diary of CEO.

 

[KEVINAA 110]

Declan Rice of Arsenal will wear shirt number 41.

41 is reversed backwards of 14 Thierry Henry.

Edited July 15, 2023 by KEVINAA

[milka 3,362]

What a season it was 

[NikkiCFC 8,085]

Liverpool conceding 4 goals against a team from Bundesliga 2. It is very important game, start of the season in just 20 days. We have very easy schedule after that game. If we can win it I can see us having 15 points after 5 rounds. They are also fucked in MF. They lost Milner, Arthur, Ox, Keita and now Fabinho and Henderson. Alcantara apparently also out of the door. That leaves them with just 2 new MFs who are both more AM and bunch of youngsters like Bajcetic, Elliott, Jones. TAA is playing DM this pre season because of this. We should exploit this. They are after DM but still not close to anyone and it will be another young player. 

[Vesper 29,213]

Trevor Francis, Britain’s first £1m footballer, dies aged 69

• Francis scored winner for Forest in European Cup final
• He played 52 times for England and was also a manager

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/trevor-francis-dies-aged-69-nottingham-forest-england-1m-footballer

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Premier League Finances by Club 2021/22 (including last 10 years growth)

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/premier-league-finances-by-club-202122

Following last week’s review of the Premier League as a whole, we will now take a look at the finances of the individual clubs in the English top flight, both in terms of the most recently published accounts for the 2021/22 season and how these have developed over the course of the last decade.

Before we get into the detail, a couple of points are worth noting:

• This analysis covers the 20 clubs that were playing in the 2021/22 Premier League, but they were not always in the top tier during the last 10 seasons. In particular, any clubs promoted from the Championship will have consequently experienced large increases in both revenue and expenses.

• The 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons were adversely affected by the COVID pandemic. Although most of the restrictions were lifted in 2021/22, the totals over the last 10 years were obviously impacted.

With those caveats in mind, the figures are still quite revealing.

Profit/(Loss)

Seven Premier League clubs reported a pre-tax profit in 2021/22. Not only did Manchester City lead the way with £42m, but they were also the only club to post a profit in each of the last two seasons. Good money was also made in particular by Burnley £36m, Brentford £30m and Brighton £24m.

In stark contrast, huge losses were posted by Manchester United, whose £150m deficit included £62m interest payable, and Chelsea £121m.

Over the last 10 years only three Premier League clubs have been profitable, namely Tottenham £203m, Liverpool £153m and Burnley £125m. It might come as a surprise to some, but the largest losses in this period were made by Everton £420m and Aston Villa £399m, ahead of Chelsea £383m.

Everton’s deficit was almost entirely driven by their poor financial results in the last 5 years, when they lost £430m, with a big gap to the next worst, Chelsea £276m. Despite the impact of COVID, five clubs were profitable, the best performance being Liverpool £123m, followed by Burnley £83m.

EBITDA

In terms of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation and Amortisation), Manchester City were again top of the tree in 2021/22 with £131m, followed by Tottenham £114m and Liverpool £96m. Only four clubs had a negative EBITDA, Newcastle United being the highest with £24m.

This profitability measure strips out player sales, non-cash items and interest to give a reasonable proxy for cash profit, so it is not overly surprising that Manchester United had the best result over the last 10 years, as the club has been a veritable cash machine until recently. Their £1.4 bln was significantly higher than Tottenham £927m, Manchester City £897m, Arsenal £707m and Liverpool £690m.

Operating Profit/(Loss)

However, it’s a different story at an operating level, where almost all football clubs lose money. This includes non-cash expenses for player amortisation and depreciation, but importantly excludes profit from player sales.

In 2021/22 only two Premier League clubs managed to generate operating profits, namely Brentford £26m and West Ham £22m, while no fewer than eight clubs lost more than £50m, including a spectacular £224m at Chelsea - and that was before Todd Boehly’s huge recruitment spree.

Over the last decade Chelsea were comfortably the worst with a £944m operating loss, though Aston Villa and Everton were no slouches, losing £598m and £583m respectively. Only three clubs posted operating profits: Manchester United £221m, Tottenham £56m and Burnley £28m.

Profit from Player Sales

In fairness to Chelsea, their business model has been built on offsetting operating losses with profits from player sales, so their £123m gain in 2021/22 was once again the highest in the Premier League, followed by Aston Villa £97m.

Both clubs benefited from the sale of youth products (Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori for the Blues and Jack Grealish for Villa), as such players have no cost in the accounts, so the sales proceeds represent pure profit.

In the last 10 years Chelsea’s £706m profit from player trading is nearly twice as much as the next best club, Liverpool £385m. Of the Big Six, Manchester United have been particularly poor, only generating £133m profit.

Clubs that have been in the Championship for a long time suffer in this comparison, e.g. Leeds United had the lowest player sales profit with only £68m, though their 2022/23 accounts will include the big money transfers of Kalvin Phillips to Manchester City and Raphinha to Barcelona.

Property Sales

Sometimes football clubs also include profits from property sales in their accounts (stadium, training ground, land, etc). This is usually a genuine transaction with external clients, as was the case with the sales made in the last 10 years by Tottenham £27m, Arsenal £27m and Brentford £13m.

However, there has also been a spate of more “creative” deals in the Championship in the last few years, when a few clubs sold their stadium to another group company in a fairly blatant attempt to be compliant with FFP regulations. As one example, this produced a £36m profit for Aston Villa.

Exceptional Items

Figures are also impacted by so-called exceptional items, usually negatively via once-off charges. This was the case in 2021/22, when a couple of clubs made severance payments to sacked managers, i.e. Manchester United £25m (Solskjaer and Rangnick) and Everton £11m (Benitez).

There were also largish exceptional charges booked by Chelsea £18m for “legal matters” and Aston Villa £10m for a payment to former owner Randy Lerner for retention of Premier League status for three seasons.

Such charges seem to impact some clubs more frequently than others, so are arguably not that exceptional for them. The worst cases in the last 10 years were Chelsea £152m, Everton £94m and Manchester United £68m.

Revenue

In 2021/22 Manchester City had the highest revenue in England (and indeed the world) with £613m, closely followed by Liverpool £594m and Manchester United £583m. There was then a fairly large gap of more than £100m to Chelsea £481m, Tottenham £443m and Arsenal £369m.

However, all of the Big Six were at least £100m more than the 7th placed club, West Ham £253m. Indeed, they accounted for £3.1 bln (57%) of the Premier League’s revenue with the other 14 clubs only having £2.4 bln (43%).

Given the increases in UEFA’s TV money, it is likely that this disparity will only widen.

Looking at the growth in the last 10 years (from 2012/13), Liverpool have done best with their revenue increasing by £388m from £206m to £594m, followed by Manchester City £342m and Tottenham £296m. Many of the large rises here can be attributed to clubs winning promotion from the Championship.

Money League

The Premier League’s financial strength can be illustrated by having 11 clubs in the Top 20 of the Deloitte Money League, the first time that one country has contributed more than half the teams in this global revenue ranking. In addition, English clubs occupied three of the top four places with Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Furthermore, England had an amazing 16 clubs in the Top 30, covering 80% of the Premier League. This was more than three times as much as the next highest country, which was Spain with five clubs, followed by Germany and Italy with three apiece.

Match Day Revenue

Once again, Manchester United had the highest match day revenue in the Premier League in 2021/22 with £111m. However, they were only just ahead of Tottenham £106m, who may well have overtaken them in 2022/23, as they were playing in the Champions League, where they will receive much higher gate receipts , compared to the previous season’s sparsely attended Europe Conference matches.

There are massive difference within the Premier League here with 13 clubs generating less than £30m. Indeed, Burnley and Watford only had £7m, which is equivalent to around two games at Old Trafford.

The Big Six had £506m (68%) of total match day, compared to just £244m (32%) for the other 14 clubs.

The highest match day growth over the last 10 years was indeed at Tottenham, up £66m from £40m to £106m, following the move to their new stadium. Next best were Liverpool, up £42m from £45m to £87m, after the expansion of the Main Stand at Anfield. West Ham increased £23m from £18m to £41m, thanks to their move to the 62,500 capacity London Stadium.

Arsenal’s match day income fell £13m from £92m to £79m, due to the absence of European competition in 2021/22. This should bounce back to more than £100m next season after the Gunners qualified for the Champions League.

Broadcasting Revenue

Liverpool earned the highest broadcasting income in 2021/22 with £261m, ahead of Manchester City £249m, Chelsea £235m and Manchester United £215m. Even though City won the Premier League, the Reds reached three finals, winning two of them, and finished runners-up in the lucrative Champions League and Premier League.

The hugely beneficial impact of qualifying for UEFA’s top tournament can be clearly seen, as England’s four representatives were a fair way ahead of the pack.

Nevertheless, broadcasting has the most even distribution of any revenue stream and is the only one where the Big Six are in the minority (in total), as they receive £1.3 bln (43%) compared to the other 14 clubs’ £1.7 bln (57%).

All clubs have enjoyed significant growth in broadcasting income in the last 10 years with Liverpool leading the way, up £197m from £64m to £261m, followed by Manchester City, up £161m from £88m to £249m.

The impact of promotion from the Championship can be clearly seen with the huge increases at Leicester City £145m (boosted in 2021/22 by playing in Europe), Crystal Palace £123m and Brighton £121m.

Premier League TV Distribution

The distribution of the Premier League’s TV money is the most equitable of the major leagues with the top club receiving around 1.5 times the amount of the bottom club: Manchester City £153m vs. Norwich City £101m. This was the first time that the club finishing last got more than £100m.

Each club receives an £88m equal share plus merit payments (based on finishing position) and facility fees (based on the number of times a club is shown live).

This will increase in 2022/23 with the new Premier League deal, which I estimate is 11% higher than the current agreement. Although domestic rights are flat, overseas rights have surged 25%, including the spectacular NBC deal in the US.

Europe TV

Liverpool earned £106m for reaching the Champions League final in 2021/22, which was the highest earned by an English club from Europe, ahead of semi-finalists Manchester City’s £96m. Liverpool’s prize money was obviously higher, but City did better in both the TV pool (after finishing top in the previous season’s Premier League) and the UEFA coefficient (based on 10-year rankings).

Earnings were much lower in the Europa League (West Ham £28m and Leicester City £21m) and the inaugural Europa Conference (Tottenham £8m), though these still helped make a difference compared to other Premier League clubs.

At the risk of stating the obvious, success on the pitch leads to higher revenue, so Manchester City’s consistency in the Champions League has generated £614m TV money from Europe in the last 10 years – and that was before they won the competition in 2022/23.

Three other clubs earned more than £400m in this period: Chelsea £505m, Liverpool £476m and Manchester United £418m. Arsenal’s three-year absence from the Champions League between 2020 and 2022 has hurt their finances with their £283m overtaken by Tottenham’s £294m.

The highest income outside the Big Six was received by Leicester City £106m, West Ham £25m, Wolves £20m, Everton £18m and Southampton £13m.

Commercial Revenue

One area where the Big Six are particularly dominant is commercial income, where they have £1.3 bln (76%) of the Premier League total, compared to only £427m (24%) for the other 14 clubs.

Traditionally, Manchester United have enjoyed the highest commercial revenue in England, but they were overtaken by their “noisy neighbours” in 2020/21 with the gap widening in 2021/22, as Manchester City’s £309m was £51m more than United’s £258m. This was the first time that an English club had broken through the £300m barrier commercially.

Arsenal were the lowest of the Big Six with £142m, though this was nearly £100m more than 7th placed Everton £50m. Worth noting that the next highest were Leeds United, whose £49m was an impressive achievement, given how long they spent outside the top flight.

The gap to the Big Six has widened in the last decade, as they have seen the highest growth with four clubs increasing by more than £100m: Manchester City more than doubled, rising £166m from £143m to £309m, as did Liverpool, up £149m from £98m to £247m. Tottenham did even better, as their commercial income quadrupled, increasing £139m from £45m to £183m, while Manchester United grew £105m from £153m to £258m.

Wages

The Big Six are effectively a Big Four when it comes to wages, as four clubs were above £340m with a huge gap of around £130m to Arsenal £212m and Tottenham £209m.

Manchester United’s £384m wage bill was not only the highest in 2021/22, but was also comfortably the highest ever in the Premier League, despite only finishing 6th and missing out on the Champions League, partly due to the Cristiano Ronaldo factor. If the club had enjoyed success on the pitch, then wages would have been even higher due to more bonus payments.

They were followed by Liverpool £366m (including high bonus payments for reaching three finals), Manchester City £354m and Chelsea £340m.

The largest wages growth in the last 10 years came at Liverpool, up £235m from £131m to £366m, followed by Manchester United, up £204m from £180m to £384m, and Chelsea, up £168m from £172m to £340m.

Manchester City’s growth over this period was “only” £121m, but they started from a much higher base than their rivals (£233m).

Half of the Premier League clubs have wages to turnover ratios above UEFA’s recommended upper limit of 70% with Newcastle United “leading the way” with 95% after spending much more on the squad following years of limited investment under Mike Ashley.

Everton were worryingly high at 90%, as were Leicester City 85%, which helps explain the relatively low recent expenditure in the transfer market by both these clubs.

By and large, the Big Six had much lower ratios, thanks to their higher revenue, though Tottenham’s 47% was in a class of its own. Brentford’s 48% should be commended, given that this has been achieved while also delivering fine results on the pitch.

Four directors in the Premier League trousered more than £2m in 2021/22 with the highest amount paid to Tottenham’s Daniel Levy £3.3m, followed by Brighton’s Paul Barber £2.9m, West Ham’s Karren Brady £2.2m and an unnamed director at Liverpool £2.1m.

In addition, Chelsea made a £35m payment to Marina Granovskaia, who acted as Roman Abramovich’s lieutenant for many years, as a reward for her role in the club’s sale, though this was not included in the football club’s accounts.

Player Amortisation

Chelsea’s £160m player amortisation, the annual charge to write-off transfer fees over the contract, was the highest in the Premier League, even before the huge outlay under Todd Boehly last season (though the impact of that spending spree will be mitigated to some extent by the very long player contracts).

Player amortisation growth in the last 10 years is led by the usual suspects, with Manchester United up £107m from £42m to £149m, while Chelsea also increased by more than £100m.

However, it’s worth noting the significant impact of investment in the squad on the bottom line at some of the “smaller” clubs, especially the increases at Leicester City £66m, Aston Villa £60m and Leeds United £56m.

Player Impairment

The growth in player amortisation has been restricted by player impairment, which is an accounting entry that writes-down the value of players, thus reducing annual amortisation going forward - and incidentally also helps to increase the profit (or reduce losses) on future sales. This would obviously be useful for a club striving to meet FFP targets.

In 2021/22 Chelsea made most use of this device, booking an incredible £77m, which was by far the highest player impairment ever booked in England, way ahead of the previous record (Stoke City’s £43m in 2019/20). Fancy financial footwork aside, it is also a pretty good indicator of poor recruitment. No names were provided, but it would be surprising if Romelu Lukaku were not on the list.

Of course, Chelsea are not the only club to book player impairment, though in the last 10 years their £114m is again the highest in the Premier League, followed by Everton £52m, Tottenham £47m and Aston Villa £41m.

Most of this has come in the last three years, partly attributed to COVID as a result of the deflated transfer market, because clubs has less funds available to spend on players.

Wages & Player Amortisation

Some analysts measure annual squad costs by adding together wages and player amortisation. On this basis, Manchester United paid the most in 2021/22 with £533m, followed by Chelsea £501m, Manchester City £495m and Liverpool £469m.

Two clubs stand out in terms of growth over the last decade, namely Manchester United, up £311m from £222m to £533m, and Liverpool, up £301m from £168m to £469m. Manchester City’s much lower growth of £181m was due to a much higher £314m starting point. Arsenal had the smallest growth in the Big Six of £141m, rising from £196m to £337m.

Depreciation

Tottenham’s £72m depreciation was by far the most in the Premier League in 2021/22, due to the substantial investment in their new stadium, which has driven big growth over the last three seasons. This was almost four times as much as the next highest, Arsenal £19m, followed by Manchester United £14m.

Other Expenses

In 2021722 five Premier League clubs had over £100m other expenses, which are effectively the clubs’ running costs: Manchester City £134m, Liverpool £132m, Tottenham £120m, Manchester United £118m and Chelsea £115m.

Such costs are often overlooked, but it is worth noting that these have also grown significantly over the last decade, especially Tottenham £86m, Manchester City £85m and Liverpool £78m.

Interest Payable

The Premier League’s net interest payable in 2021/22 was £193m with over half of this coming from just two clubs, namely Manchester United £62m and Tottenham £41m, then a big gap to Leicester City £19m.

However, it is worth noting that interest payable does not necessarily mean that the interest was actually paid, as it could be due to non-cash accounting entries. As an obvious example, United included a significant amount for unrealised exchange losses on unhedged US Dollar debt.

Transfers

Aston Villa spent an incredible £204m on player purchases in 2021/22, partly financed by the sale of Jack Grealish, which was the highest in the Premier League, ahead of Arsenal £188m and Tottenham £160m. Newcastle United spent £150m after their takeover.

That might be a bit of a surprise to some, but one swallow doesn’t make summer, so the picture is more predictable over a longer period. So in the last 10 years the three clubs that had more than £1.5 bln gross spend were Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United. There was then a sizeable gap to Arsenal and Liverpool (both around £1.1 bln), while Tottenham only spent £880m.

There is much debate about the usefulness of net transfer spend as an indicator, but for the record the two Manchester clubs had the highest over the course of the last decade with United £1.1 bln just ahead of City £1.0 bln. Arsenal were third highest with £748m, followed by Chelsea £612m and Liverpool £572m.

Tottenham’s net spend was much lower at £412m, even behind Aston Villa £458m.

Squad Cost

Manchester City had the highest squad cost in the Premier League in 2021722 with £1.1 bln, followed by Chelsea £918m, Manchester United £779m and Liverpool £729m.

Note: these figures are taken from the club accounts, so are much lower than market values, especially for academy products who are shown in the books at zero cost.

Debt

The highest gross financial debt in the Premier League was at Tottenham £853m, mainly due to loans taken out to fund their new stadium, followed by Manchester United £636m and Everton £555m.

Much of the debt at other clubs is fairly “soft”, as it has been provided by owners. As a result, four clubs had over £200m of owner debt in 2022: Brighton £406m, Everton £381m, Leicester City £266m and Arsenal £218m.

Premier League debt would have been even higher without owners writing-off their loans or converting the debt into equity. Thanks to such transactions, there were big reductions in the last 10 years at Chelsea £970m, Aston Villa £165m and Newcastle United £133m. The Blues’ decrease was due to a £1.5 bln write-off after Roman Abramovich’s forced sale of the club, while the others were part of their takeovers.

Even after all the various refinancings, Manchester United’s debt has increased from £389m to £636m, still very much to pay for the Glazers’ leveraged buy-out.

Transfer Debt

Premier League clubs have increasingly funded transfer spend by paying for players on credit, which has resulted in much higher transfer debt, i.e. outstanding stage payments on transfer fees.

The highest amount owed in 2022 was Tottenham’s £252m, which was comfortably ahead of Arsenal £188m, followed by Manchester United £182m. This helps explain how the North London clubs have managed to be so active in the transfer market recently, despite much lower revenue than their rivals.

This type of debt has grown at all Premier League clubs over the last 10 years with six of them having increases of over £100m: Tottenham £217m, Arsenal £168m, Manchester United £148m, Aston Villa £138m, Manchester City £116m and Leeds United £102m.

Total Debt

Adding together financial debt and transfer debt, we can see that one club broke through the £1 bln barrier for total debt in 2022, namely Tottenham with £1,104m. Manchester United were next highest with £818m, though we know that they were also above a billion from their latest quarterly return for 2023.

Interest Paid

The highest interest payments by far in 2021/22 were at Tottenham £22m and Manchester United £21m. These two clubs alone accounted for over a third of the interest paid in the Premier League.

Interest payments have increased a fair bit in the last couple of years, due to more bank debt and rising interest rates, though interest-free owner loans have mitigated this to a certain extent.

There were large increases, relatively speaking, at West Ham, Southampton, Wolves, Leicester City and Burnley. Manchester United’s interest payment fell £55m, though this was only because they paid an exorbitant £76m in 2012/13.

The cost of the Glazers’ LBO is laid bare by the actual interest paid, which adds up to a horrific £278m in the last 10 years. This is miles ahead of the next highest, namely Arsenal £130m (including a £32m fee for the early redemption of stadium bonds) and Tottenham £120m.

Dividends

Similarly, the only Premier League club that has consistently paid dividends to its owners is Manchester United, who paid out £156m in the last decade, averaging an annual £22m over the last seven years.

Funding

The owners at three Premier League clubs put in more than £100m of funding in 2021/22 with Everton by far the highest at £229m, partly to fund stadium development, partly to cover operating losses. The next highest were Chelsea (natch) with £132m, followed by Tottenham £97m thanks to ENIC’s first share capital increase since 2004.

In the last 10 years three clubs benefited from more than half a billion of owner funding, namely Everton £678m, Chelsea £577m and Manchester City £515m, closely followed by Aston Villa £492m. It is fair to say that this money has been spent with varying degrees of success.

Two clubs had net payments to their owners during this period: Manchester United £177m (mainly dividends) and Burnley £45m (following the takeover by Velocity Sports Ltd).

Capital Expenditure

Premier League clubs have spent £3.3 bln on capital expenditure in the last decade, including £2.2 bln in the last five years, mainly on stadium and training ground development.

Tottenham were responsible for over 40% of this infrastructure investment with a huge £1.4 bln outlay since 2013, followed by Manchester City £361m (including City Football Group expenditure), Everton £273m and Liverpool £262m.

The lack of investment in infrastructure at Newcastle United under Mike Ashley is striking with only £9m spent in 10 years.

 

Tax Paid

Premier League clubs pay hardly any corporation tax, though the Premier League would emphasise that they do contribute significant amounts to the Treasury via income tax paid by players and VAT collected by clubs.

The clubs that have been kindest to HMRC in the last decade are both to be found in North London with Tottenham £43m and Arsenal £34m paying the most tax, followed by Manchester United £29m and Burnley £13m.

 

Overview – 2021/22

This has been a massive amount of data to absorb, so here’s an overview of the top six clubs, ranked in a number of key categories.

• Manchester City’s highest revenue is driven by commercial income, supported by strong broadcasting.

• Manchester United should have done better on the pitch, given that they had the highest wage bill and second highest player amortisation.

• On the other hand, Arsenal have punched above their weight, given their relatively low revenue and wages.

• Tottenham’s new stadium is a money spinner, but it has significantly increased their debt, interest payments and depreciation.

 

 

Overview – growth last 10 years

Looking at the movement in the last 10 years from 2012/13 to 2021/22, the main point of interest is that Liverpool had the highest growth over this period for both revenue and wages.

 

Overview – by club

So the Premier League clubs in the 2021/22 Premier League have enjoyed significant revenue growth in the last decade, but as the old saying goes, “Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity”, and many clubs have seen profit worsen.

If we restrict ourselves to looking at revenue less wages and player amortisation, 50% of the clubs have managed to increase their net profit, while the other half have experienced reductions. The largest improvements were at Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool, followed by the points per Pound champions, Brentford.

In stark contrast, there were steep deteriorations at Manchester United, Everton, Newcastle United and Chelsea.

 

Conclusion

Financial results for football clubs are always published many months after a season has ended, so the latest available accounts, in this case for 2021/22, are inevitably out of date.

Therefore, they are often overtaken by subsequent events, such as the new ownerships at Chelsea and Newcastle United, who are busy redrawing the financial landscape in the Premier League.

Nevertheless, these figures do help explain the strategies and results of many clubs, not just recently, but over the course of the last decade.

The Swiss Ramble is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Аrsеnаl vs Bаrсеlоnа

27 July 2023 at 4:30.

 

 

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Barca wearing white for the first time since 1978

[NikkiCFC 8,085]

SoFi stadium is something else.

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Just now, NikkiCFC said:

SoFi stadium is something else.

the pitch is fucked though

both teams are pissed off