By David Owen
September 23 – A 40% increase in broadcasting revenue boosted FA Cup winners Arsenal’s turnover to more than £300 million in 2013-14, and kept the North London club in the black, despite a sharp reduction in profits on player sales.
Pre-tax profit for the year to end-May 2014, which saw the club finally get its hands back on some silverware after a disconcertingly long interval, edged down to £4.7 million, from £6.7 million in 2012-13 – a result achieved on turnover of £301.9 million (£280.4 million).
In a pattern that will be replicated among the club’s Premier League rivals as a consequence of the league’s significantly improved deals with Sky and BT, broadcasting revenue shot up to £120.8 million (£86 million). This made it the club’s largest source of revenue, replacing match-day revenue, which nonetheless climbed above the £100 million mark, owing partly to the Cup run.
With only Gervinho and goalkeeper Vito Mannone sold for significant sums, thought to amount to £9.5 million, however, profit on player sales was restricted to £6.9 million, compared with £47 million in 2012-13 when Robin van Persie and Alexandre Song were among those offloaded.
With wage costs kept down to £166.4 million, the cash kept rolling in, so much so that cash and short-term deposits reached an enviable £207.9 million – an increase of more than £50 million over the course of the year. With such resources at its disposal, the club was able to play a full part in a record-breaking transfer window this summer, spending around £77 million on four seasoned internationals – Alexis Sánchez, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina and Danny Welbeck, as well as Calum Chambers, the young English defender – as it seeks to build on last season’s relative success.
In written comments accompanying the results, Ivan Gazidis, chief executive, emphasised that delivering more on-field success remained “the shared ambition of our majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, the board and everyone connected with the club”.
While Arsenal still trails far behind Manchester United in terms of turnover – and, on this occasion, pre-tax profit – the current £130 million turnover gap stands to be narrowed very considerably this season, with United, bereft of European football, forecasting fiscal 2015 revenue of between £385 and £395 million.
Two Premier League clubs have now reported, producing pre-tax profits of £45 million between them. Does this signify that UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative is working? It is much too early to draw any firm conclusions, especially with such a high-spending transfer window having recently closed, but Nyon can hardly fail to be satisfied if this does turn out to be the start of a trend.
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