Skip to main content

Newton Heath were in line with Deloitte recommendations

Newton Heath were the predecessor club of Manchester United and were admitted to the Football League. The first annual meeting of the shareholders of the company was held at the end of May 1893 in the New Congregational Schoolroom. (2017 figures are produced using the Bank of England inflation calculator).

The club had debts of £314 (£38,357 in 2017 prices), but this was accounted for by the fact that they had been paying off old liabilities. If it had not been for these extraordinary charges, there would have been a profit of £220 (£26,875). The total receipts for the year amounted to £3,769 (£460k) of which was £2,951 (£360k) was gate money. Total staff costs were £2,094 (£255k). This amounted to a 55 per cent wages to turnover ratio, not far out of line with the 50 per cent ratio recommended today by Deloitte. Hotel and travelling expenses were £407 (just under £50k).

The Chairman said that ‘the net result of their year’s working was that they were putting £130 (£15.9k) into the pockets of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. The directors of that company had treated the large body of working men comprised in that club very badly indeed, and it was time that they and the Dean and Canons [who were the freeholders of the ground] knew what was the feeling of the people of Newton Heath in the matter. The time had come when they should act on their own and not be subservient to anyone in the future. (Applause).’

The club later encountered financial difficulties and became Manchester United in 1902.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Levy's anomalous status at Spurs

It is now nearly a year since Daniel Levy was dismissed as Tottenham Hotspur chairman by the Lewis family.  It has been 12 months of dramatic twists and turns, with Spurs avoiding relegation on the final day of the Premier League season, and then spending unprecedented sums this summer to try to make sure such a scare never happens again. But while most fans focus on the football — and a dubbing by Brentford   — another set of issues have been bubbling away separately. These relate to Levy’s continued position as a minority shareholder in the club. This has been in the news for much of this summer, even as we approach the first anniversary of Levy’s dismissal, and specifically this month, after he missed the opportunity last week to participate in the Lewis family’s latest equity injection into the club. On Thursday morning the club confirmed that his shareholding has been diluted, down by roughly two per cent, after the creation of new ENIC shares. Levy’s dism...