By David Owen
May 14 – The Football Association is budgeting £16 million of capital expenditure on Wembley – the world famous stadium which might soon be sold to Shahid Khan, owner of Fulham and the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) – in 2018.
The figure is included in the latest FA accounts, covering the year ended 31 July 2017, which have just arrived at Companies House.
The document also reveals full details of directors’ remuneration, which climbed to £959,000, up from £815,000 the previous year. The bulk of this – £699,000 (up from £591,000) – went to chief executive Martin Glenn. Non-executive chairman Greg Clarke picked up £161,000. While the average monthly number of employees climbed back over 1,000, aggregate remuneration edged down from £49 million to £47.7 million. This was principally due to a near £1 million reduction in severance costs.
Overall turnover fell from £369.7 million to £351.2 million, out of which the FA invested £126.6 million back into the game, up from £125.3 million. The largest turnover component – broadcasting – dipped from £135.9 million to £131.2 million, while sponsorship and licensing rose from £75.6 million to £77 million.
Club Wembley turnover rose from £56.5million to £58.2 million. The majority of Club Wembley box and premium seat licenses expired in July 2017, making the figure eventually disclosed for the current financial year of particular interest.
Turnover from St George’s Park fell from £16 million to £13.7 million.
During 2016-17, the FA secured deals with Nike until 2030, and with IMG and Pitch International, for international broadcast rights for the FA Cup, until 2024.
The new document had generally good news on the borrowing front, with the amount drawn down on the FA’s revolving credit facility and term loan amounting to £142 million at 31 July 2017, down from a year-earlier figure of £195 million.
On 2 October 2015, the FA entered into new borrowing arrangements – namely a £300 million loan facility – with Barclays, HSBC and Santander. This consisted of a £100 million term loan and a £200 million revolving credit facility. The term loan, interestingly, is due for repayment in October 2018, while the credit facility expires in 2022. The new accounts indicate that, as at the latest year-end, the total available under the revolving credit facility was £187.5 million. Both facilities are secured against the value of Wembley Stadium.
The FA’s finance costs fell sharply from £18.2 million to £7.5 million, with bank interest payable down from £6.6 million to £3.1 million.
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