By David Owen
March 2 – Liverpool have become the latest Premier League club to report strong 2016-17 profits. The Merseysiders, one of four sides vying for the runners-up spot in this season’s Premier League behind Manchester City, posted an after-tax result of £39 million for the year to 31 May 2017 – a £60 million swing from the prior season’s loss of £21 million.
Overall revenue jumped by £62 million to £364 million, in spite of an absence of European football in the year. Besides the new Premier League TV deal, this reflected both the opening of an expanded main stand at Anfield and a strong year for commercial revenue, which climbed by £20 million to £136 million.
The rise in matchday revenue, at a time when some clubs are struggling to produce any improvement at all, was by £12 million to £74 million.
The club, now into its eighth year of ownership by Fenway Sports Group of the US, generated nearly twice as much cash from operations as a year earlier – £71 million versus £37 million. Even so net bank debt rose by £22 million to £67 million.
This partly reflected new capital investment. Following the main stand, work was said to have begun in the summer on a new £50 million training ground.
While the megabucks Philippe Coutinho transfer, along with the Reds’ return to the Champions League, look already to have ensured another large profit for 2017-18, in spite of a number of expensive arrivals, it appears likely that transfer gains made only a relatively modest contribution to the latest number.
The sales of Jordan Ibe to Bournemouth and Joe Allen to Stoke City will have chipped in the most, with the club looking to have just about broken even, in accounting terms, on centre-forward Christian Benteke’s brief stay on Merseyside.
Andy Hughes, chief operating officer, said the results “further demonstrate our solid financial progress – despite the ever-rising costs in football”.
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