By David Owen
February 13 – Tottenham Hotspur, the North London club whose local rivals Arsenal have surged to the top of the Premier League table, have posted a third consecutive annual loss.
This was in spite of benefiting from a first full season of fans in the club’s impressive new stadium. While this resulted in £106.1 million of match-receipt revenue for the year to end-June 2022, the after-tax loss still weighed in at £50.1 million. This follows pre-tax losses of £80.2 million and £67.7 million respectively for the prior two, covid-impacted seasons.
These match receipts were largely responsible for a near 23% jump in total revenue to £444 million. Revenues from sponsorship and merchandising also rose, to £183.5 million, but with the club consigned for the season to the Europa Conference League, UEFA prize money amounted to just £10.2 million. This will be much higher in the current financial year, with Antonio Conte’s men having battled through to face AC Milan in the Last 16 of the Champions League.
TV and media revenue tumbled by more than £40 million to £144.2 million, in a decline attributed to 2020 games that were played out and accounted for in 2021.
Operating expenses breached £400 million at £403.4 million. This was attributed to increased player costs and a return to full matchday operations. Chairman Daniel Levy commented that “current world events” along with Brexit had led to “rising costs in our supply chains, energy prices tripling, increased business rates and disruption to deliveries”.
In his statement, Levy also held forth on what he styled the significantly changing landscape of the Premier League over the past decade.
He said: “We are competing in a league in which we have seen increased sovereign wealth ownership and consortia finance; and in a league where the spending power is now vested in the hands of a few who dominate and have the ability to distort the market.”
He said that the club welcomed “changes to the governance of the game which will compel greater financial sustainability and financial fair play (FFP)”.
He went on: “Major changes have been introduced in Europe around FFP regulations, including the newly-launched UEFA financial sustainability rules, the full impact of which will be felt from season 2025-26.
“They are based on three pillars: solvency, stability and cost control, and clubs will have three seasons to adjust to them. Many expect that these new rules will be a game changer for the sport. Even tighter regulations may follow.”
Spurs, who were unlucky to see the pandemic assert its grip so soon after their new stadium opened, have a substantial debt burden to manage. Levy noted that more than 90% of borrowings of £852.6 million were at fixed rates, with an average interest rate of 2.81%, and that the average maturity of borrowings was 20.4 years.
During the year, the club said, it had agreed a capital increase commitment of up to £150 million with its majority shareholder, ENIC, via the issue of convertible A shares. £100 million of these were subscribed for during the year.
Post year-end, the club said, these were converted into ordinary permanent share capital. This nudged up ENIC’s shareholding from 85.56% to 86.58%.
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