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Notts County finances seen through a glass darkly

Many League One and League Two clubs prepare their annual accounts, published online at Companies House, using the small companies regime which means that less information is available than for larger clubs. Normally companies are required to comply with Financial Reporting Standard 102, but in extremely rare circumstances they may be permitted not to do so. Notts County have thus departed from the requirement of FRS 102 Section 11 paragraph 11.14(a). This means that we have no income statement for the world's oldest professional football club.

What we do know is that 'The balance sheet shows that liabilities exceed assets by £6,271,609 (2016 - £4,842,818) at the year end. The company has reported a net loss after tax of £1,533,791 (2016 - £1,752,783) for the year and the directors do not expect the company to generate a profit in the coming financial year. The company's forecasts and cashflow projections indicate that future working capital requirements are in excess of the resources currently available to the company.'

'The company is reliant on continued financial support and additional future funding from the ultimate parent company [Paragon Leisure Group Limited] which itself is reliant on continued support from other related parties, in order to continue as a going concern.' In other words, Notts County is a benefactor club, albeit not on the scale of Chelsea, Middlesbrough or Ipswich Town. There is a commercial dimension to this relationship as the club owes Paragon Leisure £4.3m which is charged at an interest rate of four per cent, amounting to £170k a year.

We do know from a statement made by the chairman in January that the club was £250k inside the projected budget, in part because of the FA Cup run (and in particular the televised game against Oxford City). Ticket and hospitality sales also improved as the club challenged for promotion.

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