Premier League losses and debt pile grow

[davieG]

https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2024/08/premier-league-losses-and-debt-pile-grow.html

 

The Premier League has now lost money five years in a row, adding up to a substantial £3.1 bln before tax. This is a dramatic worsening compared to the £1.3 bln profit that was generated in the preceding 5-year period, when it had posted profits on four occasions.  In 2022/23 half of the clubs in England’s top flight lost more than £50m, led by Aston Villa £120m, Tottenham £95m, Chelsea £90m and Leicester City £90m.

Operating losses have significantly grown, so the Premier League lost an eye-watering £5.1 bln in the last five years, compared to just £369m in the preceding 5-year period.  In fact, operating losses have more than tripled from the £413m before the pandemic in 2018/19 to the £1.3 bln in 2022/23, when no fewer than six clubs lost more than £100m: Chelsea £249m, Leicester City £151m, Aston Villa £139m, Everton £120m, Leeds United £106m and Wolves £101m.

The magnitude of the operating losses underlines the importance of profit from player sales to the Premier League, so the good news is that this increased from £647m to £695m in 2022/23. This was the highest for five years, though still a fair bit lower than the £836m record in 2017/18.

There has been a clear increase in two activities as a result of the pressure to improve profit from player sales:

Sales of Academy products, as these represent “pure profit”.
Player swaps, where profits can be boosted with a degree of “creativity”, thus benefiting both sides of the deal. This includes separate deals between two clubs that just happen to take place at the same time.
However, there’s no doubting the Premier League’s ability to grow revenue, as it set another all-time high in 2022/23, breaking through the £6 bln barrier for the first time.  The Premier League’s broadcasting income rose £284m (10%) from £3.0 bln to £3.2 bln in 2022/223, as this was the first year of the new 3-year cycle in the broadcasting deal.

Commercial had its highest ever share of total revenue in 2022/23 with 32.4%, though broadcasting remained the most important revenue stream with 53.4%.  Match day’s share slightly increased from 13.8% to 14.2%, though this has significantly reduced in the last ten years from 18.6%.

However, the Premier League’s impressive revenue growth has been eaten up by increases in the cost base.   Wages have more than doubled in the last ten years, rising by £2.2 bln from “only” £1.9 bln in 2013/14 to £4.1 bln.

In 2023 gross debt rose £358m from £4.0 bln to £4.4 bln. If we exclude Chelsea from the calculation, the resulting £4.2 bln is the highest ever debt in England’s top flight, more than doubling from £2.0 bln in 2017.  Premier League debt levels would have been even higher without owners writing-off £1.7 bln owed to them and also converting £796 m of their loans to equity in the last three years.

Premier League owners have had to provide £4.5 bln funding in the last 10 years, comprising £2.7 bln loans and £1.8 bln capital injections.   This has significantly increased in the last five years to £3.4 bln, compared to “only” £1.2 bln in the preceding 5-year period. Owner loans were up £832m from £1.9 bln, while equity capital rose from £337m to £1.5 bln.

Indeed, the £1.1 bln owner funding in 2022/23 was the highest ever with the largest amounts being a £425m loan at Chelsea plus capital injections at Newcastle United (£127m) and Aston Villa (£124m).

Debt and owner funding continued to grow, as losses had to be covered somehow. This has led to total debt, including transfer payables, reaching an unprecedented £7.4 bln.

[Jon the Hat]

A mixture of rich owner spending to the limit they are allowed to, and debt funded clubs paying interest to their owners up to the limit.  None of it is real.