By Tony Attwood
In an earlier article (linked above), I looked at the finances of the first 10 clubs in the Premier League and pondered how clubs could go on losing money over and over again, year after year. Now here we can move on to the rest that I have got data for.
11. Brentford
The club made a loss of £17.67 million, more than double the previous season. The income was £173.1 million – up about 4% on the year before.
Brentford must be in double heaven at the moment. The club had a record turnover and it finished up six places from 2023/24, so got more TV money and commercial support. And now as I come to write this (19 September) they are undefeated and third in the league! OK others have played one game fewer, but the first time I saw Brentford play they were in the third division.
Their only trouble must be rising salaries – the problem everyone has when success comes long. As a result they lost £40 million in the last accounts before including player trading. How on earth are they going to recoup that?
12. Manchester United
There was a loss before tax of £33.02 million (three times that of the year before) on a revenue of £666.5 million.
And the media is in a panic about ManU, so no change there; they always are. Record revenues, and a huge losses, year after year. Amazingly in an era when everyone and his aunt is broadcasting football around the world they managed to bring in 22% less money because they dropped down in terms of European games and in the Premier League.
Manu do go on bringing in massive commercial revenues but one day kiddies and their parents will think, “why aren’t we worshipping a team that is top of the league?”.
13. Leeds United
They won the Championship, their income went up, but sadly so did their losses, not least because spending over £100m on staff wages cannot be balanced from income when in the second tier. But I suppose they thought it was worthwhile in order to get back to the top level. The next set of figures will be interesting.
14. Brighton & Hove Albion
They made a near record loss last season that wiped out all the profit from the season before which really wasn’t very clever. Now it is true most of the extra expenditure went on players, and after a dodgy first couple of games this season, things improved. But they seem to be slipping into a world where they need European footy to make money, and that is again a dodgy place to be.
15 Nottingham Forest
A year or two back they had phenomenal player sales and so made a profit in 2023/4. But that is not a trick you can pull twice (obviously), so even taking more money at the gate etc can’t then stop a record loss. To make money they need to be finishing in the top half dozen, playing in Europe and not spending fortune on player transfers.
16. Tottenham Hotspur
Ah, the tiny Totts. They’ve moved stadia, done all the hard work and then what do they get: a 13% rise in the cost of running the club. And what did they put this down to? More regular events at their stadium.
Now if you remember these events were what the ground was built for (American football etc) yet now they are an excuse because it turns out the new events lose them more money!!! And remember this was the season they won the Europa League. So here’s a thought – if they go down, they could go bust. Oh dear.
17. West Ham United
Mega losses, drop in income, worst financial results ever – all this for a club that was given its stadium by Boris to try and cover the fact that he’d built an Olympic ground and had nothing to do with it afterwards. I think it is possible they might take a little while to come back from this financial situation.
18. Chelsea
The biggest loss ever for a PL club in Chelsea’s second best ever year for turnover!! Largely because having sold the women’s team to get out of last season’s pickle, they had nothing more to sell, and its a fairly small ground. If they stop finding new competitions like the Club World Cup, their owners will have to dig deeper and deeper and they will break all the financial rules going.
