The club's annual report reveals a loss of £11.5m in the year ending 30 June 2008 and an operating loss of £8.6m. Turnover was down by 25 per cent compared with the last year in the Premiership. Directors and other shareholders came to the rescue of the club by subscribing to a corporate bond issue that raised £14.7m, allowing short-term loans to be paid off and raising working capital.
Although some economies have been made since then, there have also been some revenue reductions following poor performances this season which could mean at least an equivalent loss this season. How will that be funded this time? We are grateful to the directors and shareholders for their financial support, which I understand is continuing, but the prospects for the club look gloomy, particularly if it is relegated.
5 comments:
Gulp! And it all seemed so positive a few months ago, with Zabeel on the horizon
I've just made a quick and crude search on Google to compare with our relegation rivals' financial state in 2008;
Southampton 13m operating loss
Notts forest £6m "cash deficit" - and they owe their Chairman £40m!
Watford operating loss £11m
Wolves ( as a contast) - profit of £0.8m
Looks like we are in good company Wyn.
Pembury Addick
Looks like most of the playing staff are on the opposite of performance related pay. Who was/is responsible for the negotiation of players contracts?
I've been pretty supportive of the board over the last dreadful two and a half seasons, but after the reference to unacceptable footballing performances being behind the fact we made an 11.5 million loss last year, i'm finding their apparent ability to blame everyone/thing other than themselves and their poor decision making on management appointments, player contracts (which have seemingly been nothing short of extortionate)and ludicrous transfer fee's paid (relativley speaking based upon the players we signed). I thinks it's about time that they held their collective hands up and took on a degree of responsibility for the clubs currrent plight.
Whether or not you were one of the 'lets move things forward and get rid of Curbishley' brigade or not. I think most would agree that Curbs seems to have been the linch pin in the sensible running and back then continued stability of the club.
A bit of good old fashioned humble pie type honesty would not go a miss.
I genuinely believe the 'getting rid of Curbishley to move things forward' line is a view held by a minority of Charlton fans. I always felt that Sky tv and the tabloids had 'cherry picked' fans to construct their own story: the perils of greed and complacency. Even Curbs himself now gets to wheel this out as a defence - 'some people turn their noses up at boring mid table premiership status'.
The fact is, we all new the squad was not capable of 'mid tableness' for much longer. And so did Curbs. I feel real sadness that my memories of Curbishley (which should realy just be thanks and gratitude for what he helped turn the club into) have been forever soured by the fact that he basicaly jumped ship. A skill for which he might well be credited for once again if Wet Spam get caught in the financial porcelain whirlpool.
By the end of January 2005 we'd collected 37 points. To get just 9 more from the entire rest of season cannot be put down to the loss of just one player. The fact that we did SO well, and then SO incredibly bad showed some serious mis-management.
When finishing 11th in 2005, & 13th in 2006, yes it was boring, but of more concern was that we constantly robbed opponents and rode the luck pony at full speed. Does anyone realy look back at those years and feel we had mid table boredom all sewn up? Because I don't. All I remember is constantly feeling like we'd got away with it, and that this can't go on forever. Please tell me I'm wrong, but I genuinely thought most fans never wanted Curbishley out just because we were bored - it was just a natural end, and probably a season or two late at that.
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