By David Owen
January 22 – England’s Football Association (FA) has reported a loss and a reduction in turnover for its financial year ended July 31. The £9.3 million pre-tax loss was attributable partly to £10.4 million of restructuring/reorganisation costs, which in turn included £6.7 million of redundancy costs.
The dip in turnover – from £332.3 million to £318.1 million – came in a year which saw income from sponsorship and licensing slide by £11.5 million to £58.4 million. There was no lead sponsor for the FA Cup in the 2014-15 season. Emirates has since stepped into the breach, auguring better for the current 12 months.
Even so, the FA pressed ahead with £116.7 million of investments into the game in 2014-15, marginally up on the previous year’s £115 million, and a record. This was equivalent to 36.7% of turnover or more than £1 for every £3 earned.
Headcount actually grew from 1,017 to 1,050, although the bill for remuneration was almost flat, even after severance costs.
This will also go down as a year when the highest-paid FA director earned more than £1 million – £1.05 million to be precise, all-in. This was, however, said to include compensation for loss of office, which may have been as high as £645,000.
The FA made net interest payments of £21.6 million during the year, as well as £11.9 million of loan repayments. This left £251.6 million of bank loans relating to the funding of the new Wembley Stadium outstanding at the year-end.
Last October, however, a refinancing was secured whereby existing loan obligations were repaid and new borrowing arrangements – consisting of a £300 million loan facility – entered into with Barclays, HSBC and Santander. This new facility is made up of a £200 million seven-year revolving credit facility and a £100 million term loan, secured for three years.
Interest on the seven-year instrument is payable at LIBOR plus 1.15%; that on the term loan will go no higher than LIBOR plus 1.25%. By way of comparison, interest on the old loan was payable at LIBOR plus 1.6-2.25%..
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