More nonsense is probably talked about football debt than many other financial issues around the game. Remember the key point about a debt is whether you can service it. Most of it take on debts at some point of our lives: mortgages, student loans, loans to buy a car or undertake house improvements.
I do a lot of work on agricultural issues and I know that many farms operate on a overdraft simply because of cash flow issues. It doesn't mean they are insolvent.
Fortunately when it comes to football we have the authoritative Swiss Ramble tweeting from his Zurich fastness. He understands all the different definitions of debt in football which can produce very different results. I am not going to go into all the technicalities because I am not an accountant and don't understand them all myself. It would be very easy to get buried under an avalanche of information.
Recent accounts published by clubs have revealed major debt challenges, but they
also highlighted some issues around different definitions of debt, so the Swiss
Ramble takes a look at these using 2019/20 accounts from selected clubs and
explain why Barca might have more problems than others.
Some clubs benefit from debt largely being provided by their
owner, usually in the form of interest-free loans with no fixed repayment date.
For example, Farhad Moshiri has provided Everton with £350m of their £409m debt,
while Tony Bloom has funded £304m of Brighton £306m debt
Using UEFA’s definition of net financial and transfer debt,
the highest amounts owed are actually at two English clubs, namely Tottenham
Hotspur £719m and Manchester United £565m.
One reason why Barca have more problems with debt than the
English clubs is that so much of it is short-term, i.e. needs to be repaid
within the next 12 months. £346m of Barca’s £704m is short-term, while for Spurs
it is only £220m of £970m, and for Manchester United £105m of £675m
The reason that debt is not so immediately problematic for
the leading English clubs is that so much of it is structured via long-term
financing, e.g. Spurs have nearly a billion in financial/transfer debt, but
£750m is long-term with average maturity in 23 years for bank loans.
Another problem for football clubs is that debt has steeply
increased since the pandemic struck. This is particularly the case in Spain.
Looking at bank loans and transfer debt combined, there has been staggering
growth
Two clubs have more than a billion of total debt: Tottenham
Hotspur £1,177m and Barca £1,030m. Finally, this highlights why Barca have more
of a debt problem than other clubs, as they have by far the highest short-term
debt of £641m,
Spanish clubs often pay wages twice a year [something I didn't know], so their high
cash balances when accounts are published end-June can be misleading, as the
money is largely needed to make payroll
While it is
important to be able to ultimately pay off debt, the ability to service the
debt via interest expenses is absolutely crucial. The highest interest payments
(in cash terms) in 2019/20 were Barca £23m, Manchester United £20m, AS Roma £16m, Inter £15m and Tottenham
Hotspur £14m.
[That is money that cannot be used for the club and in my view it is the figure that fans should focus on].
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