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Swiss blast at Villa finances

From his Zurich base, the Swiss Ramble has delivered a critical blast at Aston Villa at odds with his usual dispassionate tone.   Some Villa fans have taken offence, and I can see why they might.   Nevertheless, if I was a Villa fan, I would be questioning whether all this money had been well spent.

One Villa fan said that they did not need to be reminded of the dark ages.  Another commented: 'Ignoring that in that time we have been promoted pushed top 10 and pushing lots of big teams as well as a dramatic team change and gaining 100m from joe, not to mention the massive academy upgrade and training facilities now know to be some of the best in the country.'

In the last 10 years Aston Villa have reported a staggering £455m of pre-tax losses, which is actually highest of the 20 clubs in the Premier League in the 2019/20 season.

The last time that the club posted an operating profit was back in 2014 – and that was only £1m. Excluding player sales and exceptional items, operating losses have been steadily worsening year after year, culminating in £103m in 2020, one of the largest in the top flight.

The wages to turnover ratio has been consistently on the high side, rising to 175% in the Championship in 2019 (including promotion bonuses). This improved in the Premier League in 2020, but was still at a worrying 97%, which was one of the worst in the top tier.

It is true that the club are almost debt-free, but this is only thanks to the generosity of their owners, who have effectively written-off a cool £223m in the last 7 years, including £90m waived repayments, £85m conversion of debt into equity and £48m former owners’ loans repaid.

In fact, the owners have provided £337m of funding in the last 5 years, mainly in the form of new share capital, to cover large operational losses, hefty player purchases and infrastructure investment. This is the second highest in the Premier League, only behind Everton £348m.

The club sailed very close to the wind with Financial Fair Play in the 2019 Championship, though they would have been around £50m above the allowed losses without the benefit of £36m profit from the inter-company stadium sale and £17m compensation for high-speed rail network.


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