Good financial results at Brighton

Brighton swung from a £53m pre-tax loss to £24m profit, a significant £77m improvement, mainly due to profit from player sales shooting up from £7m to £62m, though revenue also rose £28m (20%) from £146m to a club record £174m.

Brighton’s £24m profit is the second best financial performance to date in the Premier League, only surpassed by Manchester City’s £42m. This is indeed impressive, especially as some clubs reported substantial losses last season, including Manchester United £150m, Leicester City £92m and Tottenham £61m.

This is only the second time that Brighton have posted a profit in the last decade, with the £24m surplus comfortably beating the previous record of £12m in the first season following promotion to the top flight.  Despite last season’s profit, Brighton’s total losses since promotion still add up to £106m.

Brighton spent £70m on player purchases in 2021/22, which was more than twice as much as the previous season’s £31m, and the second highest in the club’s history. It was also just ahead of Liverpool’s £69m outlay, but significantly lower than the likes of Aston Villa £204m, Arsenal £188m and Tottenham £160m.

Brighton’s transfer expenditure has significantly increased since promotion to the Premier League, as they have spent £292m in the last five years, compared to only £37m in the preceding 5-year period.

Brighton’s gross financial debt increased by £35m from £374m to £409m,almost entirely from owner Tony Bloom in the shape of an interest-free, unsecured loan of £406m. Brighton’s debt is undoubtedly very high for a club of their size, though it is not an issue, so long as Bloom continues to provide support. The fact that his loan is interest-free gives Albion a competitive advantage against those rivals that have to pay interest on their loans.  Bloom has now provided just shy of half a billion pounds to Brighton via £406m of loans and £88m of share capital (including £30m loans converted into equity).

This is obviously a very good set of financial results with Brighton setting club records for revenue, player sales and profit, but it should be acknowledged that they still required another £70m from their owner.