There remains a material uncertainty about Everton’s ability to operate as a going concern should the club be relegated.
The fear, which matches the status recorded last year, is the most significant line in a damning set of accounts that raise further questions about how the club has been governed in recent years.
It follows a financial year in which the club recorded an underlying loss of just over £89m – almost twice the £44.7m deficit of the previous year.
There are some mitigating circumstances, namely the impact of the club suspending its sponsorship deals with Russia-linked companies following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Substantial progress has also been made on the club’s new waterfront stadium.
But there is little hiding from the grim reality of a set of numbers that show Everton is a club in substantial debt and a heightened state of financial vulnerability.
The loss takes Everton to a cumulative deficit of around £500m over the past five years, though that includes the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on club finances. The latest figures, which cover the 12 months to July 2023, come despite apparent efforts to improve the club’s financial position that have seen the playing squad weakened and the sale of high-profile players in a failed bid to comply with Premier League spending rules.
The 2022 financial year saw a loss of just over £44m, recorded despite a summer of low spending and the sale of Richarlison late in the accounting period. Despite that, Everton still breached profit and sustainability regulations, leading to the 10 point deduction handed out in November before being reduced to six points earlier this year.
Everton faced a hearing over a second alleged breach of the rules last week, an accusation relating to this latest set of accounts, released on the afternoon of Easter Sunday. The new figures surround a financial year that started with the spending of the summer of then manager Frank Lampard and current director of football Kevin Thelwell. The club committed to fees for players including Amadou Onana, Dwight McNeil, Idrissa Gueye, James Garner and Neal Maupay, though sold Anthony Gordon for around £40m in the following January. In the profit and sustainability hearing over Everton’s accounts for the years up to 2022, the Premier League expressed concern over the club’s spending during this summer and arguments over the matter will have been the subject of last week’s hearing.
The latest figures show Everton’s position worsening on the previous year, which may undermine any attempt to argue the club’s finances were following a long term positive trend, a position put forward by the club in its first hearing.
The loss does include the impact of Everton’s decision to suspend partnerships with companies linked to oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who was later sanctioned as part of the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The club took the decision voluntarily, a move believed to have cost around £20m in sponsorship deals for this accounting period. The nature of the decision meant the club was unable to seek direct replacements for some of the agreements. That situation, as well as the cost of departures of Lampard and his coaching staff as well as other significant club figures form part of the backdrop to the increase in losses from £44.7m to £89.1m.
That later figure comes with turnover having decreased to £172.2m, down by almost £9m on the previous year. Gate receipts did rise but of further concern will be the increase in the wage to turnover ratio from 90% to 92%. The rise is partly due to the fall in turnover and these figures end in the summer of 2023 before significant departures from the playing squad.
Another notable figure of concern is the rise in club debt to just over £330m. Significant expense has been incurred on the stadium project, around £210m over the 12 months in question, and the club is understood to have now moved to capitalise interest payments on stadium costs. But the debt figure does not include the support package put in place by 777 Partners since the US group reached a deal to purchase majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri’s stake in the club in September. That move, the subject of protracted and still ongoing scrutiny by the Premier League, has seen just over $200m of additional loans provided to the club.
Against that backdrop, Everton are now winless in 12 Premier League games after defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday and three points clear of the relegation zone while potentially facing a second points deduction. The uncertainty around the club’s ability to meet its obligations in the event of relegation therefore adds further jeopardy to its already distressed financial state.
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