The Political Economy of Football V2

The average turnover of a club in the National League North is now just over £700,000 a year and the average playing budget is £268,000. This reflects the fact that there are a number of former Football League clubs in the division. However, a number of clubs have much smaller turnovers and playing budgets. The recently released accounts of one club for 2017/18 show a turnover of £294k and a player budget of £190k. Advertising and sponsorship was the biggest income stream at £90k while match receipts amounted to £77k. A donation of £10k was received for a player transferred to a Championship club. A £18k contribution was received from the National League from Premier League distributions and their own sponsorships. Individual directors bought £25k of shares to cover a projected £18k end year loss.

Portsmouth lost £35,000 a week in 2017/18, but player sales helped to reduce this by a quarter (net profit of £475k). Matchday, broadcast and commercial income are all showing good growth for Portsmouth. Wages of £65 for every £100 of income, below the recommended Uefa level, show that financial controls are in place. Turnover was up from £7.9m to £8.5m. 52 per cent of turnover at £4.6m came from ticket sales. The next biggest item was the Football League basic award at just under £2m. Portsmouth may have to pay former owners £3m or £4m (depending on the date of promotion) if promoted to the Premier League in the next few years. The full accounts are available here: Portsmouth accounts

Wrexham FC reckons that it benefits from fan ownership. Although income was down, the operating loss was just £36,000 last year and fans have invested £1m in the club, not counting their volunteer labour: Solid set of accounts

Scunthorpe United lost £83,000 a week in 2017/18. The main reason for Scunthorpe's losses were wages which were £152 for every £100 of income, way above the Uefa recommended level of 70 per cent. Turnover increased very marginally at £4.18m. The loss for the financial year was £3.6m. The biggest income item was the league central distribution, up marginally at £1.43m. Gate receipts and ticket sales fell very slightly at £1.06m. Player purchases were £10k and sales £350k. Scunthorpe were dependent upon £9m of loans from parent co Coolsilk, who charged £200k interest on these.

Charlton had an operating loss of £256,000 a week last season in League One to take total historic losses to just under £60 million. Wages were £140 for every £100 of income, way above the 70 per cent level recommended by Uefa. Katrien Miere's salary not disclosed as she was chief executive but not a director (she resigned during the financial year). Charlton paid redundancy costs of £374k in 2017/18. In terms of player trading purchases were £310k and sales £4.4 million. The profit on player trading reduced the operating loss from £13.4m to £10.1m. Match day income at £3.4m accounted for 46 per cent of the total. It was marginally up by 7 per cent from £3.2m. EFL and Premier League distributions fell by 21 per cent from £1.8m to £1.4m. The EFL distributions dropped from £1.2m to £0.7m and the Premier League solidarity payment increased from £0.6m to £0.7m. Commercial income increased by 8 per cent to £1.4m, helped by the run in to the play offs. The strategic report sta...

Burnley's accounts for 2017/18 show that day to day profits were down £11 million but sale of Keane and Gray generated a £30 million profit to more than make up for it. The7th place finish in Premier League generated more prize money which was the driving force behind £17 million increase in income for Burnley. Player trading consisted of purchases at £43.5m and sales of £36 million. The total squad cost £95m at 30 June 2018. The Chairman states in his report, 'Following the successful retention of our Premier League status at the third time of asking in 2016/17, I felt it was absolutely essential that we should avoid the dreaded "second season" syndrome and as a result we continued to invest in new playing talent whilst trading players where we felt that they might be at, or close to, the peak of their value.' Wages grew from £61m to £81m, an increase of £20m on the previous season, as a result of a determination to be more competitive in the market, coupled ...

Fulham have published their financial results for 2017/18 showing the price of getting to the Premier League was losing £1,137,000 a week in 2017/18. Between themFulham, Wolves and Cardiff City lost £158 million last season (and Cardiff were in receipt of parachute payments). Fulham’s total losses over the years now £339 million. Fulham had further loans of £40 million from parent Cougar Holdco last year. Fulham paid £142 in wages last season for every £100 of income despite receiving parachute payments. Fulham player trading in 2017/18 was purchases £30.5 million and sales £18 million. Fulham have confirmed a net spend of £118 million since June 2018 on player signings.