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In the here and now, things are going swimmingly for Liverpool.
Six points clear at the summit of the Premier League with a game in hand and leading the way in the UEFA Champions League has the Reds riding high in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.
Financially, the club is in rude health under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group
FSG have managed to oversee a title-challenging side pieced together through a sustainable business model.
Looking ahead, should Liverpool win the league this season then they would not only secure another lucrative crack at the Champions League, but they would also claim merit payments of some £56.4m for finishing at the top of the pile
The Champions League is also more valuable than ever, and Liverpool, should they finish top of in the group stages, would add £8.5m to the £9.4m from knockout qualification
Winning the competition would be worth, all told, some £120m.
There are, of course, some expensive decisions to be made around contract extensions for Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold
in the coming weeks the Reds will publish their financial accounts for the 2023/24 period, covering a season where the club were without Champions League football
Accounts, and the narrative around them, can be a curious thing as they are essentially a snapshot in time of almost a year ago
They do, however, provide the nuts and bolts of how the direction of travel of a number of key areas, such as total revenue and commercial and matchday revenue, as well as wage spend.
Profit is a rarity in football, and while Liverpool have been able to make more than most of their rivals in recent years through success being aligned with a more prudent financial approach
the publishing of the 2023/24 accounts will see the club post a second successive loss, one larger than the £9m pre-tax loss, one that came on the back of a £7.5m profit for 2021/22.
Reports last month had suggested that the total loss for the club could exceed £100m based on financial forecasts
However, while a loss is expected and will be significant, it will be considerably lower than that figure to the tunej of tens of millions
PSR concerns won’t be an issue given past performance of the football club financially.
The club hasn’t changed its financial approach, what had changed during that period is the lack of Champions League football
While Europa League football for a season is something that can be absorbed in the short-term, prolonged absence from the competition can be heavily damaging
a concern that rivals such as Manchester United are currently toiling with,
Arsenal took some time to recover and remain behind the curv in terms of financial muscle due to their absence from the competition for a number of seasons.
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