Fulham have announced losses of more than £73million.
Club accounts filed with Companies House yesterday reveal that the newly-relegated Cottagers made the huge loss in the financial year of 2019/20. That covered a campaign when Fulham eventually reached the Premier League, in a season elongated due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Income from player sales did reduce the losses somewhat, with £25m raised. The sale of Ryan Sessegnon to Tottenham Hotspur helped in this regard.
But the accounts detail that Fulham’s income dropped by around £80m following their 2018/2019 relegation from the Premier League and that the average wage paid out in the Championship was £34,000-per-week – above the divisional average.
The figures continue a worrying trend among clubs in the EFL.
Only yesterday Sheffield Wednesday posted losses of £23million, whilst in May Stoke City posted a mammoth loss of more than £90million.
The Potters made losses of £91.6 million in 2019/20 – despite parachute payments still being paid to them following their relegation from the Premier League in 2018.
According to Kieran Maguire, the well-respected football finance specialist and host of podcast ‘The Price of Football’, the revenue-to-player wages average in the Championship is now at 130 per cent.
In plain English that means for every £10million clubs earn in a season, they spend £13m on wages alone.
Recently, a group of 10 EFL clubs, including Championship side Luton, called for changes to make the sport more sustainable.
Under the banner of the ‘Fair Game’ movement the group are calling for parachute payments to be scrapped, an independent regulator to be installed with powers to oversee the men’s and women’s game and for salary caps to be re-introduced in the EFL.
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