Norwich City made a £15 million profit after tax in their latest set of annual accounts, released on Wednesday morning. They cover the 2020-21 season in which Norwich recovered from Premier League relegation to take the EFL Championship title with a club-record tally of 97 points, a campaign that was played almost entirely behind closed doors.
The club now believe COVID-19 has cost them about £30
million in total, while their posted profit relied on record player sales
including Emi Buendia’s £38 million move to Aston Villa.
Without income from player sales last season, which also
included instalments from Everton and Newcastle from the departures of Ben
Godfrey and Jamal Lewis, Norwich would have posted a £26.6 million operating
loss.
As for Norwich’s subsequent investment in the squad
following promotion, only Milot Rashica’s £9.4 million transfer from Werder
Bremen is included in the latest set of accounts. Another £52.7 million has
been committed to further arrivals, including the obligations to make loan
moves for Ben Gibson and Dimitris Giannoulis permanent.
How were Norwich able to return an operating profit? Put simply, it was by selling Buendia. Had Norwich not achieved that, they would
have posted a loss — especially given their wages to turnover ratio last season
was 116 per cent, albeit including promotion bonuses.
It is also worth bearing in mind that while Norwich posted a
£15 million profit after tax as of June 30, that had all effectively gone the
following day given the transfer fees due to Burnley and PAOK for Gibson and
Giannoulis becoming permanent signings on July 1.
Does that mean Norwich should ‘go for it’ and spend more? Norwich did. This has been a very different
summer to two years ago, when Norwich spent a total of £6.2 million. The bigger
question to be answered, including by head coach Daniel Farke, is how wisely
they spent it.
Norwich, as an EFL club, made a £15 million profit
after tax despite revenue dropping by 50 per cent (from £119.3 million, in
2019-20, to £57.2 million) is quite the headline. That includes the loss of not
only full Premier League revenue following relegation the previous
season, but also of £12 million in ticketing and catering income.
Norwich’s wages-to-turnover ratio — how much they pay out in
salaries as a percentage of the money flowing through the club — last season
stood at 116 per cent. That is inflated by promotion bonuses but even with
those removed, the figure would still have been more than 100 per cent. That is
perhaps the most visible impact of the financial hole created by COVID-19.
Their recruitment policy was to buy players young enough to
add to their value in a Norwich shirt, regardless of the initial investment. It
is sound logic but will not play out in reality if the evidence provided over
the past two months continues to build.
If they can stay up this season, it will be another four
years before Norwich have to contemplate living without Premier League revenue
of some kind — ideal for the club’s financial planning, which usually works
over three seasons.
Suffer another one-and-done relegation and, despite every
player’s contract continuing to carry a wage reduction if the club are in the
Championship, there would be a need to sell some of them next summer to balance
their finances. Should the worst happen this season, Norwich will have a
harsher situation to deal with back in the EFL.
Despite some tricky financial manoeuvres, Norwich still
invested £4.3 million into infrastructure projects and unveiled plans for
more development at their training ground. Those improvements may happen even
if they do get relegated, provided the sums work.
The club are conscious that, in the next five to 10 years,
the City Stand is going to need to be replaced, while also contemplating the
effect a new capacity significantly higher than their current 27,000 may have
on their stable base of 20,000 season-ticket holders.
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