By David Owen
April 1 – Unfashionable Burnley have quietly become one of the most profitable clubs in English football, the Leicester City of football finance. The team in claret and blue from an old East Lancashire cotton town has posted a pre-tax profit of £34.6 million for its year to 30 June 2015 – just £500,000 less than Arsenal and Manchester City managed between them.
The result is a testament to the sky-high TV revenues that Premier League football brings, along with Burnley’s comparatively meagre wage bill. Aggregate payroll costs reached £29.4 million in the year under review, when the club was playing in the English top-tier. Promotion costs of almost £8 million from the previous season were charged in the 2013-14 financial statements.
The figures do not even include the sale of striker Danny Ings to Liverpool, for which a fee has yet to be determined.
Mike Garlick, the club’s chairman, underlined that while the figures indicated that “we now have a large sum of money in the bank, this isn’t the case”.
He continued: “Decisions were taken early in the season to clear all the club’s external and internal debts…
“We also committed to stadium improvements…as well as redeveloping our training ground at a cost of around £10 million…
“Most of the development work will be completed by early 2017, and was long overdue, but lack of funds always previously prevented us from completing these projects.
“If you add all that up, the combined cost of eliminating all debt, plus the new developments is approximately £20 million.”
As indicated in the accounts, some of the repaid loans were due to Garlick himself, via his shareholdings in associated companies. According to a note on related party transactions, “at the balance sheet date the amount due to Mr M L Garlick via his shareholdings in associated companies was £nil (2014 – £1,790,000).
“Interest and bonus payments of £476,989 (2014 – £74,197) were made to Mr M L Garlick during the year via his shareholdings in associated companies.”
Of course, 2014-15 ended in relegation for the club and with them seemingly poised to bounce straight back, it will be interesting to see whether these impressive figures encourage supporter calls to pump more money into the squad in an attempt to ensure that their next Premier League sojourn is a long one.
The club has a proud tradition, having twice been English champions, most recently in 1960. They and several others may find that this season’s on-field exploits by unfashionable Leicester City might change fan perceptions of what is possible.
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