Premier League Club Finances 2015 - 2016
Financial figures for the 20 clubs that were in the Premier League during 2015 - 2016. All details from the most recently published annual reports at Companies House. Net debt is as stated in the accounts; debts minus cash held at the bank. The separate categories of turnover are each rounded down or up, so added together they do not always tally with the total turnover figure.
Arsenal
Ownership Arsenal Holdings PLC major shareholders are: Kroenke Sports Enterprises UK (registered in Delaware, owned by US resident Stan Kroenke): 67%; Red and White Securities Limited (owned via Jersey, by Russian resident Alisher Usmanov): 30%
Gate and matchday income £100m
TV and broadcasting £141m
Retail £25m
Commercial £82m
Property development £3m
Player trading £3m
Net debt £6m
Interest payable £14m
Highest-paid director Ivan Gazidis: £2.648m
State they’re in A handsome financial position which contrasts with the misery around the Emirates over this season’s fifth place finish - and shows clearly why US-based owner Kroenke has stated he will be holding on to his Arsenal shares. Arsenal’s board and Arsène Wenger have never seemed to adequately appreciate the bounty of their move to the Emirates, which has delivered them £100m from match-going supporters and lucrative property development windfalls in Highbury. The commercial operation could perhaps bring in yet more money, but the health of the finances suggests the underperformance is within Wenger’s football operation. Following pointed criticism from supporters, Kroenke’s company was not paid the £3m for “strategic and advisory services” charged in previous years.
Aston Villa
Ownership US holding company Reform Acquisitions LLC, sold by Randy Lerner in June 2016 to Chinese businessman Tony Xia, who owns the shares via Zhejiang Ruikang (Recon) Investment Co, based in Hong Kong.
Gate and matchday £12m
TV and broadcasting £65m
Commercial £19m
Sponsorship £12m
Net debt Not stated: net £77m owed to creditors
Interest payable £0.7m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £2.96m
State they’re in The miserable final year of Randy Lerner’s decade in charge of Villa. All that early optimism and sixth-place finishes for three consecutive seasons from 2007-08, ended in a painful relegation and his sale of the club to the Chinese entrepreneur Tony Xia. The huge loss recorded is more an accounting technicality than a real reflection of excessive money spent but still, Villa should not have gone down with the seventh highest wages of any Premier League club. Lerner did invest more than £200m – a further £10.5m was paid for shares in this period - but the club’s fate ultimately reflected the US owner’s disillusionment and detachment.
Bournemouth
Ownership Club states it is 75% owned by the Russian businessman Maxim Demin, via a family trust; accounts state the holding company is Fortina Enterprises Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands tax haven. 25% owned by Peak6 Football Holdings LLC, US company 63% owned by investor Matthew Hulsizer and his wife Jenny Just; 37% by minority investors.
Match Income £5m
TV rights £75m
Sponsorship and advertising £4m
Hospitality and events £1m
Retail £1m
Other income £2m
Net debt Not stated: £53m loans put in by owners
Interest payable £1.7m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £1.07m
State they’re in The Cherries miraculously making the top flight should be one of football’s loveliest stories, but romance is mostly constrained now by the size of a wage bill. Well run as the club clearly is, the key to Bournemouth’s rise rests with £53.3m loaned by shareholders, principally Russian petrochemicals magnate Maxim Demin, who owns the club via a British Virgin Islands holding company. US investors Hulsizer and Just, a married couple who bought their 25% stake in November 2015 via Peak6, a Chicago-based private equity vehicle, put in £19.6m of this loan total, interest free. Promotion multiplied Bournemouth’s income, but the accounts still state: “The company is dependent on continued financial support from its shareholders.”
Chelsea
Ownership Wholly owned by Roman Abramovich, registered at Companies House as a Russian resident.
Broadcasting £143m
Matchday £70m
Commercial £122m
Net debt Not stated; £1.14bn owed to Abramovich
Interest payable No net interest payable
Highest-paid director £223,000 to unnamed director of Chelsea Football Club Ltd
State they’re in Chelsea’s worst ever season in the Roman Abramovich era seems a distant memory now that Antonio Conte has restored fluidity and spirit to a squad which finished 10th last year. The accounts reflect the turbulence on the field, stating that termination payments for sacked José Mourinho and his coaches amounted to £8.3m and the club paid £67m to end its kit sponsorship deal with Adidas early. Abramovich increased his funding of Chelsea by £75m during the year, taking the total loans since the oligarch took over the club in 2003 to £1.14bn.
Crystal Palace
Ownership Steve Parish and US investors David Blitzer and Joshua Harris control the holding company, Palace Holdco UK Ltd; individual stakes equal but not disclosed.
Gate receipts £12m
Sponsorship and advertising £4m
Broadcasting £78m
Other commercial activities £6m
Other income £2m
Net debt Not stated: No bank debt, directors’ loans repaid
Interest payable £0.2m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £692,000; Steve Parish was the only UK based director
State they’re in US investors Blitzer and Harris bought into Palace in December 2015 and the figures suggest a tidying of the finances while Palace are banking Premier League fortunes. Loans from the previous four local shareholders of £10.7m were repaid during the year, then a further £6.2m was repaid after June 30 2016. The 15th place finish in 2015-16 and hiring of Sam Allardyce to preserve Premier League status this season demonstrates that keeping the money coming in is precarious. The accounts note Palace’s victory in the High Court against Tony Pulis, after an FA tribunal found Pulis acted deceitfully when paid a £2m survival bonus early, then leaving for West Bromwich Albion two days later.
Everton
Ownership Major shareholders in the Everton Football Club Company Limited stated by the club: Farhad Moshiri, Monaco resident, via Blue Heaven Holdings, an Isle of Man company: 49.9%; Bill Kenwright: 12.16%; Jon Woods: 8.9%. Minority shareholders own the other 29.05%
Gate receipts £18m
TV and broadcasting £83m
Sponsorship, advertising and merchandise £9m
Oher commercial £12m
Net debt £55m
Interest payable £5m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £400,000
State they’re in The year in which chairman Bill Kenwright’s long search for an investor finally culminated in the 49.9% takeover by Farhad Moshiri in March 2016. Moshiri insisted that he has bought Everton entirely independently of his long term client and partner, the Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, even after Usmanov’s holding company, USM, sponsored the Finch Farm training ground. Moshiri immediately made an interest free loan of £80m, allowing Everton to clear debts which Kenwright and the chief executive, Robert Elstone, have wrestled to keep under control while trying to compete with much wealthier clubs. Now progressing plans for a new stadium on the Bramley Moore Dock site.
Leicester City
Ownership Owned by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and his family via his Thai company, King Power International Ltd.
Match receipts £12m
TV and other football income £96m
Sponsorship and advertising £14m
Commercial £7m
Net debt Not stated; £11m owed to owners, minimal bank debt
Interest payable £2m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £158,000 (Susan Whelan is the chief executive)
State they’re in The year which broke the rules of modern football. Leicester is not quite the minor city minnow portrayed in some of the hyperbole about their extraordinary Premier League title victory, Thai owner Srivaddhanaprabha having put in more than £100m to fund their rise from the Championship. But the stand-out figure, reflecting the generally journeyman squad which over-performed so consistently to win the title, is the wage bill: £80m, lower than 14 other clubs who could normally expect to finish above them. Manchester United’s wage bill, the highest in the league, was £232m, fully £152m more and almost triple Leicester’s, yet United finished fifth.
Liverpool
Ownership Fenway Sports Group, registered in the USA as New England Sports Ventures I, LLC, of which John W Henry is the principal shareholder
Gate and matchday income £62m
TV and broadcasting £124m
Commercial activities £116m
Net debt Not stated; bank loan £55m; FSG loan £110m
Interest payable £6m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £1.21m (Ian Ayre was the managing director)
State they’re in A club clearly on the rise under Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, these are the last accounts before the September 2016 opening of the new 20,500-seat main stand at Anfield. It incorporates plush hospitality and facilities designed to bring in the big bucks, which will be reflected in next year’s accounts. Almost uniquely among current US investors, FSG have put money into their club – loans which they increased by £60m to £129.9m, in order to fund the stadium expansion. After taking over with Liverpool in financial crisis in 2010, FSG are looking more convincing now, with an expanded stadium, strong income, Jürgen Klopp, shrewder player recruitment, and a fourth place finish this season.
Manchester City
Ownership Parent company City Football Group, owned 87% by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, via the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development, registered in Abu Dhabi. 13% owned by China Media Capital
Gate and Matchday £53m
TV and broadcasting, Uefa £61m
TV and broadcasting, all other £100m
Commercial activities £178m
Net debt £11m
Interest payable £1m
Highest-paid director Total pay of management team at City Football Group Limited was £4.4m
State they’re in The directors working for Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi always said that football’s structure of dishing out financial rewards to the successful would eventually justify the massive money spent on players in the early years. City’s accounts show £1.21bn spent overall by Mansour since his 2008 takeover, and a second successive year of profit made from huge club income. The Etihad Stadium expansion, which increased average home Premier League match attendance by 8,000 to 54,041, immediately added £10m from supporters. The journey to the 2015-16 Champions League semi-final meant that £61m was earned from Uefa TV money, which rather puts the fans’ perennial booing of the Champions League anthem in perspective.
Manchester United
Ownership Owned by the Glazer family via Red Football LLC, a company registered in the low-tax US state of Nevada, United plc is now registered in the Cayman Islands tax haven and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Gate and matchday income £107m
TV and broadcasting £140m
Commercial, merchandising and sponsorship £268m
Net debt £261m
Interest and finance costs £20m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £2.962m (Ed Woodward is executive vice-chairman)
State they’re in Quite staggering figures. United’s owners, the Glazer family, infamously loaded the £525m debt of their 2005 takeover on to the club itself to repay, which has cost United more than £700m since. Yet the massive reach and exploitation of the United name in booming sponsorships mean the club’s income, £515m, is fully £123m higher than the next highest-earning club, neighbours City. Commercial income alone was £90m more than City’s; unusually, the filings of United plc (registered in the Cayman Islands) cite the amounts of individual sponsorships: £72.7m from Adidas in the year; £59m from shirt sponsor General Motors. The payment of dividends began in this year, worth £15m to the six Glazer siblings.
Newcastle United
Ownership Mike Ashley owns Newcastle United via his company, MASH Holdings Limited, registered in the UK.
Gate and matchday £25m
TV and broadcasting £73m
Commercial and other income £28m
Net debt Not stated; £129m loans from Mike Ashley and his companies; no bank debt
Interest payable £0.008m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £150,000 (Lee Charnley was the managing director)
State they’re in The figures look reasonable but a little penny-pinching, to Mike Ashley’s great cost. The decision to retain loyal club servant John Carver as the manager after Alan Pardew left in 2015 almost ended in relegation then, but last season the late appointment of Rafael Benítez to replace Steve McClaren was made too late. Newcastle had actually spent a net £80m on players in the summer of 2015 and January 2016, but their wage bill was the 16th highest in the league, despite income putting the club in the top 10, which managing director Charnley had fatefully suggested was the club’s footballing aspiration.
Norwich City
Ownership Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones own 53.1% of the club’s shares; deputy chairman Michael Foulger owns approximately 16%
Gate receipts £12m
Broadcasting and media £70m
Catering £4m
Commercial & other income £12m
Net debt Not stated; £2.7m bank overdraft, no directors’ loans.
Interest payable £1.8m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £2.149m including compensation for leaving (David McNally was the chief executive who left the club on May 31 2016)
State they’re in The quantum gap between the Premier League and Football League is illustrated by Norwich’s 2014-15 TV income of £29m, boosted by parachute payments, instantly increasing by £41m on promotion. These figures reflect a prudent approach to yo-yoing after aiming for survival by increasing the wage bill, but not risking financial crisis from the failure to do so. The long-term effort under Smith and Wynn Jones has been to build a strongly supported club and minimise debt. Apart from a £3m bank overdraft secured on Premier League parachute payments, the club had no borrowings and directors’ loans of £2m were repaid.
Southampton
Ownership Owned by Katharina Liebherr, resident in Switzerland.
Matchday £19m
Premier League and broadcasting £90m
Commercial activities £12m
Other income £3m
Net debt Not stated, total bank, owner and other loans: £63m
Interest payable £6m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £445,000 (Ralph Kreuger is the chairman)
State they’re in Reports of crises at Southampton have been frequent since the owner, Katharina Liebherr, inherited the club among the other major business interests of her late father, Markus, in 2010, but she has confounded them with stable stewardship. Another exodus of star players in the summer of 2015 – Nathaniel Clyne sold to Liverpool for £12.5m, Morgan Schneiderlin bought by Manchester United for £25m – was matched by shrewd signings showing a profit of £29m. Southampton reacted calmly to Ronald Koeman’s departure as they did when Mauricio Pochettino left in 2014, and finished eighth under Claude Puel this time. Liebherr still has £31m in loans to the club at 5% interest; another loan of £15m was repaid.
Stoke City
Ownership Owned by bet365 Group, the online gambling company controlled by Denise Coates, daughter of chairman Peter, and family.
Gate receipts £8m
Sponsorship and advertising £9m
TV and media £79m
Conferencing and hospitality £4m
Other £1m
Retail and merchandising £3m
Net debt Not stated; £59m loans from bet365 companies
Interest payable Nil
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £934,000 (Tony Scholes is the chief executive)
State they’re in Steady, in the year Stoke finished ninth in the Premier League for the third season running. They demonstrated ambition by signing Xherdan Shaqiri and Gianelli Imbula, and pushed the wage bill up by £15m. Run as close to the old-style fan-family ownership model as is possible in English football’s billion-pound era, chairman Peter Coates’ company bet365 now pays for stadium naming rights as well as sponsoring the team’s shirts. The Coates family’s online gambling behemoth still has £59m in loans owing from more difficult financial years, but the club is now sustaining itself, making a profit for the third successive year in 2016.
Sunderland
Ownership Owned by the American Ellis Short via Drumaville, a company registered in Jersey
Gate receipts £10m
TV and media £72m
Sponsorship and royalties £9m
Conference, catering £10m
Retail and other commercial £4m
Net debt £110m
Interest payable £8m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £1.2m, including £850,000 for leaving (Margaret Byrne was the chief executive, who resigned on March 8 2016)
State they’re in Sunderland’s financial position has not been happy for years and although these latest published accounts are for last year, before this season’s relegation, it is difficult to imagine they look much healthier now for the challenge of the Championship. Ellis Short’s club was still registering the sort of major loss which has mostly been managed away since the Premier League’s financial fair play rules were introduced in 2013 to try and limit the escalation of players wages. The chief executive, Margaret Byrne, resigned in March 2016 over her handling of the Adam Johnson underage sexual activity scandal; she was apparently paid £850,000 compensation.
Swansea City
Ownership Jason Levien and Stephen Kaplan, held via Swansea Football LLC, registered in the US: 68%; Swansea City Supporters Society Limited (supporters trust): 21.1%.
Match income £8m
Media £79m
Commercial & other £10m
Net debt No borrowings
Interest payable £0.8m
Highest paid director: £500,368 paid to Huw Jenkins
State they’re in Previously hailed as the ideal model across football by Premier League executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, this was the year the Swansea City halo fell off. The shareholders who had worked in partnership with the 21.1% owning supporters trust excluded them from negotiations to sell their shares to US investors Levien and Kaplan, which made each of them 100 times their small initial stakes. Swansea made a loss in 2015-16, and Huw Jenkins’ hand with managerial appointments and in the transfer market was less sure. There is some way to go if the US owners are to restore serenity to the Swans.
Tottenham Hotspur
Ownership Enic International Limited, registered in the Bahamas (tax haven), owns 85.55% of Spurs. Joe Lewis, resident in the Bahamas, has the controlling 70.6% ownership of Enic; trusts of which chairman Daniel Levy and family are the beneficiaries own the other 29.41%
Match receipts £41m
TV and media £94m
All commercial activities £59m
Uefa prize money £16m
Net debt Not stated: Bank loans £125m
Interest payable £4m (net interest)
Highest-paid director £2.843m paid to Daniel Levy
State they’re in The accounts state that £100m was borrowed of the £200m loan facility with a consortium of banks to fund the new stadium currently being constructed. The loan, which runs only to December this year before needing to be repaid or refinanced, is secured on future gate and hospitality receipts at the new stadium. Spurs also have still outstanding their £25m loan from Investec, which was used to build the new training ground in Enfield, due for repayment by 2022. The club’s playing performances under Mauricio Pochettino are all the more impressive in the context of so much physical and financial reconstruction.
Watford
Ownership Owned by Gino Pozzo via Hornets Investment SA, registered in Luxembourg
Matchday £8m
Media and broadcasting £80m
Commercial £3m
Other income £4m
Interest payable £2m
Highest-paid director Unnamed: £245,000
State they’re in The first year in the Premier League for the Pozzo-owned Hornets encapsulates what the swarm of overseas investors are looking for from English football. In the Championship in 2013-14, Watford’s income from TV and media rights was £4.6m, a standard figure for clubs with no parachute payments. After vaulting the gap to the breakaway Premier League, Watford’s TV and media income instantly multiplied to £79.6m. Pozzo, who owns the club via a holding company along with Serie A club Udinese, actually increased his loans by £15m during the year, charging interest at 6% above bank base rate, and a further £20m in loans was taken out.
West Bromwich Albion
Ownership Guochuan Lai, via Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited, bought the majority shareholding from the former chairman Jeremy Peace in August 2016
Gate receipts £8m
Merchandising £3m
TV and media £79m
Commercial income £9m
Net debt No borrowings
Interest payable Nil
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £1.952m (Jeremy Peace was the executive chairman throughout the financial year)
State they’re in Final year of ownership by the chairman of 14 years Jeremy Peace, before his sale to the Chinese billionaire Guochuan Lai in August 2016. In his farewell open letter to Baggies fans, Peace justifiably recalled a successful stewardship, through years of yoyo-ing between the Premier League and Championship while strengthening the club overall. The accounts reflect the soundness of the debt-free club he has passed on. Typically in such football valedictories, in which he hailed Lai for the energy he can bring and access to the China football boom, Peace did not mention how much he was paid for his shares: reported to be between £150m and £200m.
West Ham
Ownership Owned 51.1%, by David Sullivan, 35.1% by David Gold, and 10% by CB Holding ehf
Match receipts and football related £27m
Commercial £19m
Premier League and broadcasting £87m
Retail and merchandising £9m
Net debt £67m
Interest payable £6m
Highest-paid director Unnamed, £907,000 (Karren Brady is the executive vice-chairman)
State they’re in The final year of figures for West Ham at the Boleyn Ground; next year’s accounts will show how much the deal-of-the-century occupation of the former Olympic Stadium has made for the club, despite the settling-in problems at the new venue. Sullivan, Gold and Brady have turned around a club in financial crisis under its former Icelandic owners, moving into the London Stadium with the club’s income already the seventh highest in the Premier League. Sullivan and Gold had £49.2m loans at 6-7% interest - £12m interest had been accrued – and the accounts state that a £31m bank loan first taken out in 2013 has now been paid off.
Totals for all clubs 2015-16
Turnover £3.649bn (up from £3.4bn in 2014-15)
Wages £2.247bn – 61% of turnover (Up from £2bn, 60% of turnover, in 2015)
Profit/loss
Twelve clubs made profit: £153m
Eight clubs made loss: £270m
Overall loss: £117m (was a £113m profit overall in 2015)
| Team | Final League Position | Turnover | Matchday Income | Broadcasting Income | Commercial Income | Wage Bill | Wages as percentage of Turnover | Net Debt, £m |
| Arsenal | £354 | £100 | £141 | 110 | £195 | 55% | 6 | |
| Aston Villa | £109 | £12 | £65 | 31 | £81 | 74% | 0.7 | |
| Bournemouth | £88 | £5 | £75 | 8 | £63 | 72% | 53 | |
| Chelsea | £335 | £70 | £143 | 122 | £224 | 67% | 114000 | |
| Crystal Palace | £102 | £12 | £78 | 12 | £81 | 79% | none | |
| Everton | £122 | £18 | £83 | 21 | £84 | 69% | 55 | |
| Leicester City | £129 | £12 | £96 | 21 | £80 | 62% | 11 | |
| Liverpool | £302 | £62 | £124 | 116 | £208 | 69% | 165 | |
| Manchester City | £392 | £53 | £161 | 178 | £198 | 51% | 11 | |
| Manchester United | £515 | £107 | £140 | 268 | £232 | 45% | 261 | |
| Newcastle United | £126 | £25 | £73 | 28 | £75 | 60% | 129 | |
| Norwich City | £98 | £12 | £70 | 16 | £67 | 68% | 2.7 | |
| Southampton | £124 | £19 | £90 | 12 | £85 | 69% | 63 | |
| Stoke City | £104 | £8 | £79 | 8 | £82 | 79% | 59 | |
| Sunderland | £108 | £10 | £72 | 23 | £84 | 78% | 110 | |
| Swansea City | £97 | £8 | £79 | 10 | £82 | 85% | 0 | |
| Tottenham Hotspur | £210 | £41 | £94 | 59 | £100 | 48% | 125 | |
| Watford | £94 | £8 | £80 | 3 | £28 | 30% | 35 | |
| West Bromwich Albion | £98 | £8 | £79 | 3 | £74 | 76% | 0 | |
| West Ham United | £142 | £27 | £87 | 28 | £85 | 60% | 67 |