BEVERLY HILLS, April 28, (THEWILL) – The immense impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the finances of football clubs across the globe has been revealed again with the announcement of a pre-tax loss of £46m suffered by the English Premier League club Liverpool for the 2019/20 season, ending 31 May 2020.
THEWILL recalls that attempts to manage football in the United Kingdom as the pandemic began crossing borders were halted when, in March last year, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta tested positive for COVID-19 and the EPL was forced to immediately suspend football activities until the summer, when it became safe to resume.
Consequently, there was an accounting loss of more than two months of the season which led to a £59m drop in media and broadcast revenue from the previous season. There was also another £13m fall in matchday revenue and overall revenue suffered a £43m drop to £490m. Fortunately, because of a tremendously successful title-winning season, commercial income had a positive £29m growth.
The red ink on the financials meant that, all things considered, the Anfield outfit made the best of their difficult circumstances to end the year with a £46m loss before tax.
Based on the revamped calendar that allowed for a return to football after the three-month pause of the 2019/20 season, EPL teams played their remaining games after the scheduled cut-off date for the season’s account. Liverpool played nine of such matches, four of which were at home.
However, with the continued closure of Anfield, up until now, apart from the three games with 2,000 fans during the tiered-phases of in-person stadium allowance in November and December, Liverpool’s matchday revenue will remain almost completely wiped out until next season, when fans return to the stands.
The fairly bright spot from the entire 2019/2020 campaign came from the retail segment of the club’s business. The team’s title-winning run saw LFC Retail witness significant growth as the club sold record numbers of the red home shirt, domestically. Internationally, there were strides made too, especially with the opening of retail stores in Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam
Winning the league also helped on the new media front where Liverpool experienced a 32% growth in the club’s social media and digital following across these online platforms where the official club accounts maintain a profile.
The mix of positive and negative allowed Andy Hughes, managing director for the club to say; “This financial reporting period was up to May 2020, so approaching a year ago now. It does, however, begin to demonstrate the initial financial impact of the pandemic and the significant reductions in key revenue streams.
“We were in a solid financial position prior to the pandemic and since this reporting period we have continued to manage our costs effectively and navigate our way through such an unprecedented period.”
Not all clubs were as fortunate to have some of their financials in green as their fortunes were hardest hit by the harsh economic situation occasioned by the pandemic and many are still battling to stay above water. This will be clearer at more and more teams detail their financial situations in the coming weeks.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
