Everton report reduced losses for 2021-22

Losses of £44 million last season but it looks like £141 million over the past 3 which puts us over the £105 million allowed?

I think you're correct to say Everton have lost more than the allowed amount over the 3-year cycle, but it will be interesting to see how the club believes it has stayed within the legislated limits and whether the Independent Commission agrees with the club.

Kenwright is confident that the Blues have done nothing wrong when it comes to rules. The Everton chairman said: “As the following accounts for 2021-22 were being prepared for publication, the Club was disappointed to learn of the Premier League's decision to refer it to an independent commission for an alleged Profitability and Sustainability breach. I cannot comment ahead of that commission, other than to say that the Club is confident it remains compliant with all of the Premier League's financial rules and regulations and has always provided information to them in an open and transparent manner.

“That the Club has always acted in good faith simply intensifies the disappointment experienced at last week's news – but, as already stressed, we will robustly defend our position. The accounts which follow show a turnover of £181m, achieved despite the suspension of all commercial activities with Russian companies in March 2022."

Bill Kenwright Breaks Silence

The accounts will be a starting point, less allowable items.

No one in the West saw that invasion happening, therefore by losing that income, we should have an argument 🤷

Chairman Bill says:

"As the following accounts for 2021-22 were being prepared for publication, the Club was disappointed to learn of the Premier League's decision to refer it to an independent commission for an alleged Profitability and Sustainability breach.

I cannot comment ahead of that commission, other than to say that the Club is confident it remains compliant with all of the Premier League's financial rules and regulations and has always provided information to them in an open and transparent manner.

No matter what way you dress our accounts up, we have not stayed within the Premier League's financial rules and regulations.

We may have had special arrangements with the Premier League but we have broken the rules. That is a fact.

Billy the Liar goes on to say:

"I may have been castigated by some fans for sharing my opinion that I have enjoyed many times at Everton, and even though we have sadly been trophyless under my Chairmanship, it is with no fear of further criticism when I say two league games from last season's 38 will stay with me forever.

Do I have to say more than that night against Crystal Palace? While the afternoon I stood alone in the stand at Leicester City after a monumental away win, listening to our outstanding travelling supporters sing passionately and
enthusiastically – for a full 20 minutes after the game had ended!! – was inspiring, humbling and genuinely moving.

"Memories of occasions like these has made the recent instruction given to myself and my fellow board members not to attend Goodison Park all the more painful. That has hurt deeply."

The day this fraud is removed from this club will be one to celebrate. Let's just hope it comes sooner rather than later.

GOING CONCERN

As outlined in detail in the notes to the financial statements, the Directors recognise that there is uncertainty attached to the timing and quantum of the anticipated revenue levels, cost savings and the future funding required by the Group over the forecast period in a relegation scenario. Efforts are
currently underway to secure funding as referenced in the Directors' report.

If the assumptions in the relegation scenario were not achieved, then the Group would have to seek further funding from its majority shareholder. They have provided a letter of support confirming ongoing financial support will be provided to the Group but this letter does not represent a legally binding commitment.

Collectively, the above conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the group's ability to continue as a going concern.

The Board are confident in the Club's ability to remain in the Premier League and that should they be relegated funding will be secured or refinanced and that they will be able to achieve the necessary levels of revenue and savings to allow the Group to continue in operational existence for a period of 12 months after the date of signing these financial
statements.

However, whilst the Directors acknowledge these uncertainties cast significant doubt on the entity's ability to continue as a going concern, they still feel it is appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis.

Accounts photo referring to Esk's Point

I don't know whether the specifics of our alleged breach will come out of the independent commission – ie, whether it was a specific trade or the stadium expenditure, as some are speculating.

The accounts are bad enough to read but the unadulterated lying shit out of his mouth is more unpalatable.

The sooner this fraudster is out of this club, the better.

Possibly, Chelsea were closed down to new customers due to sanctions on the Russian oligarch. So they are seeking adjustment for that impact on their losses.

I would anticipate there would be some leeway for clubs with Russian sponsors on long-term contracts. The UK was open to business with the Russians before the invasion, you can't flick a switch.

Honest question? I have no idea.

I think the difference with say Chelsea and us was that Abramovich was the accepted, out-in-the-open owner, whereas Moshiri is ours.

Usmanov was, in theory, just another sponsor and, in theory, not in any way owner or part owner.

There was no compelling reason to do so, and many other examples exist in the industry where players in similar circumstances have continued to be selected and played by their clubs.

It was Everton's decision and theirs alone to suspend him and taking a massive hit in both financial terms and in terms of what the player could have done to improve the club's performance on the field if he had been supported by the club rather than thrown directly under the bus.

The tea ladies' comments would have been far more relevant.

Asking because I don't know the answer; not because I'm trying to make a point.

It's okay to say "Well, the losses aren't as big as previous ones" but it's still running at about £860k per week, which just isn't sustainable. Told to stay away from Goodison – they're lucky they are allowed within 100 miles of an Everton game anywhere in the world.

He should shut up, and fuck the fuck off.

I get told off by some for being soft and overly romantic when it comes to Everton, family included. That doesn't qualify me to run Everton Football Club.

Someone could advise me all they want to stay away from Goodison. It would be a waste of breath. Nothing would or ever will stop me if I have the privilege and opportunity.

He's not like me or any of us.

Everton couldn't get paid for the USM sponsorship deal as it would break sanction rules.

Clubs couldn't receive ongoing fees from Russian clubs for loan fees.

It is the same. The Premier League will be making allowances.

How are we ever going to be able to invest again, in the squad, especially as we must have built in £20M or so a year amortisation for the next 3 or 4 years with the signings in the summer?

You raise a desperately urgent point. It feels to me that our club is teetering on a precipice.

Al Hilal were rumoured to be about to offer €10M for Sigurdsson, I think he was on £6M a year so a possibly we lost a potential £15M. Not game changing money, but would have helped the P&S position to a degree.

Bill Kenwright is delusional, spouting all that teary nonsense when today's Everton accounts talk of existential threats. He as chairman should accept responsibility for overseeing this incompetent debacle.

He has put the club's future in perilous danger and should resign immediately.

I say 'loss' but it's not actually money lost either as it was already committed and would have been no different had he played. So a loss of his value to the team is perhaps more of a case to be made.

And even then, you could argue that he had peaked for us in 2018-19 and was in decline when we summarily dispensed with his services, while still paying his full salary, no doubt, for another 12 months.

"Uncyrstallised losses" of 90m can anyone explain this ? If we have 44m losses and 90m crystallised or uncrystallised losses isn't that 134m loss ? Or am I just getting it wrong ?

We are so dependent now on moshiri continuing to dip into his pockets to keep us afloat it's scary.

This once great institution brought to its knees, hanging by the width of goal post to our very survival.

Forget the accounts, some clever people can study those. I'll get lost.

Good times? Leicester and Crystal Palace last season were good times? Don't get me wrong, I've not seen many nights at Goodison like that come back against the Eagles and the atmosphere was electric. But I could see the worry and tension in supporters'. eyes before the Palace match. The relief came out to create the atmosphere. It was nervous tension and pure joy at the end, but we were all running on fumes.

Good times were seeing us win our first trophy in 14 years. Romping to the League title in swashbuckling style, brushing aside everything in our path. Rotterdam. Narrowly missing out on a double to come back and win the league again.

They were good times.

Not being relieved because we beat Leicester away and came back against Palace to survive.

Yes, we enjoyed the moment, but don't give me good times. It was traumatic resulting in an outpouring of relief.

I guess it symbolises expectation. You are not beating it out of me even if you are a bigger Evertonian than me.

Also it's not just the Club who have airbrushed him out, but most of the supporters as well. I was never a big fan of him as a player, partly because we paid well over the odds. As a player however, he was streets ahead of some of his successors and as a human being he deserves better from us.

Relagation could

" cast doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern"

I hope the players don't read this statement as they were just getting a bit of confidence together. I mean, talk about pressure to stay up. It's pressure to keep us afloat.

gate receipts of £15.6m, up from the £200,000 the previous financial year when most games were behind closed doors.

The club’s other operating costs increased to £36.2m (FY21: £25.4m), which was mainly driven by increased costs from staging fixtures at Goodison Park with fans in attendance.

So the fans returning saw us bring in an extra 15 million but staging games at Goodison also caused our costs to go up by 11 million? So we made a net profit of 4 million from having fans versus having an empty stadium? Doesn't this also undermine our ludicrously stated 170 million of "covid losses"?

This club is run by fools. Our "commercial revenue" for years has mostly been inflated deals from USM sponsoring things that don't normally need sponsoring. We will have another round of manager/coach payoffs this January to cut into the Gordon money. Obviously, low TV money due to league placing, no meaningful revenue from the cup competitions. If we survive, we pay Dyche another 3.5 million. But what happens if we survive, then get relegated due to a points deduction? Does he still get his bonus? Did they consider that possibility when they drew up his contract?

As many in business have stated, the way Everton (and other Premier League clubs) are run defies all the standard rules of business… and yet you never see a Premier League club going tits up. (I may be tempting fate there! We do have a penchant for being first after all!!!)

We bought Kean for 29 million in 2019 and sold him apparently for 24 million. But since he was on a five year deal, they'd be amortizing the cost of buying him over those five years so 5.8 million a year. What happens then if we have so far reported 5.8 million for the last 3 years, but not the remaining two years of the 5.8 million ? Do we have to report now as he is no longer under contract? So like 11.6 million for this year? Do we carry on claiming those expenses over the next two years as originally intended?

I think fans tend to think they're going to get a superstar when we spend big money but in context of richer clubs it wasn't even that much money.

As for the allegations it's impossible to know whether he was hung out to dry or whether we did the right thing.

Like Mason Greenwood the lack of charges doesn't necessarily mean innocence. Unfortunately he's either done something horrific or, sadly for him, it'll always be assumed he did even if completely innocent.

As for those accounts, though the losses are mitigated they are offset by the sale of Richarlison. No doubt Gordon and possibly Pickfords sales will go towards the books for 2022/2023. Eventually we will run out of assets to sell.

Furthermore evidence this board need to be replaced and there is real urgency that they need replacing this summer.

It.must be that the Stadium Development Company was separated from the Club company after the £200 million expenditure.It makes me think that this expenditure was hoped as being acceptable to offset losses.

Really there is a Kenwright denial of the possess breach the Profitabi!ity and Sustainability rules., but no explanation on how they intent to successfully content the Profitability and sustainability accusation by the Premier League in front of the Independent Commission.I

As for his wistful thinking on the Board and himself not attending game, and looking for more good times, who is he thinking he is kidding.

Yet they are quick to flog us, pre judge us and leave us out to dry.

We all know Everton out of the way would suit the Premier league, it would stop us having a say on behalf of the other 13 clubs about upsetting the so called big 6.

Now we all know.

With only 4 points currently separating the clubs in 12th and 20th place in the league, and with us firmly in that mix, I’d say we have a 50% chance of staying up. Our chances have obviously improved under Sean Dyche. However, our survival chances would be substantially reduced if the EPL decide to hand us a points deduction.

During a long multinational business career, I’ve seen many companies go bust, or get taken-over, while undertaking large construction/capital projects. These are typically companies with leaders who underestimate risks, and/or overestimate their chances of business success in a challenging market.

Spending £700 million on a new stadium while the club was significantly loss making, was always a massive gamble. Losing the club’s principle sponsor (Usminov), due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, may prove to be the ultimate blow to the club’s ambitious plans.

As a lifelong Evertonian in my mid-sixties, my sincere hope is that we limbo under the wire and manage to stay up again.

But what happens if we don’t?

If we go down, and based on the mood music in today’s accounts, I believe there’s a chance that Moshiri (and his boss Usminov) would cut their losses and walk away. If that were to happen, administration for the club could follow.

Failing companies are sometimes acquired, pre or post administration, by opportunistic investors. If this scenario were to play out at EFC, it’s possible to imagine offers that value the shares at a nominal figure (zero), but take on the club’s external debt and agree to finance the remainder of the stadium build. The stadium is a valuable asset that could still provide a good return, as long as there is a loyal fan base (undisputed) and the basis of a viable club.

Clearly, that kind of investment offer would be better received pre-administration, as we would avoid further points reductions and sanctions. I suspect some of the potential investors that have been circling will be looking for this kind of deal. They will wait to see what happens at the end of the season.

In the meantime, I’ll be roaring on the team from the Top Balcony, and desperately hoping for Sean and the boys to keep us up.

The only Armageddon I want watch at the end of May is Ricky Gervais in Leeds.

It’s not the average that matters it’s the limit of 105 million in losses cumulatively over three years. So if you average that out it’s 35 million a year. We had more than three times the permitted losses

I would also like to say - mr Kenwright what planet are you on ? It's obviously not the one we all live on !! Please GO AWAY !!! ( Polite version ).

At the time of writing, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Leeds United, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest are yet to publish their accounts for the last campaign.

I think that Newcastle posted a loss of £70m since the above details were published.

I really don't think as Evertonians we should be worried about the losses for last year in isolation, rather it's the £430m losses accrued in the last five years that should trouble all of us, how can we possibly carry on losing money at that rate, no matter how many mitigating circumstances may be responsible for it?

The concept of going concern is an underlying assumption in the preparation of financial statements, hence it is assumed that the entity has neither the intention, nor the need, to liquidate or curtail materially the scale of its operations. If management conclude that the entity has no alternative but to liquidate or curtail materially the scale of its operations, the going concern basis cannot be used and the financial statements must be prepared on a different basis (such as the ‘break-up’ basis). Source: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

I wonder if this will turn out to be a method to separate the new stadium from the football club, I haven't a clue about these things and I'm hoping somebody like the Esk will answer some of these questions in the next few days.

On another note, it’s Notts Forrest who are pushing the prem to punish us (the prem are promising them a quick answer) with a points deduction. Good luck to them. I hope the fuckers get relegated and their fat, greasy owner finally gets his day in a Greek court.

The Forest point, not the Kenwright statement

But the story in October, despite board denials, was more accurate than I thought. They have scarpered, sharpish, to be replaced by a small Midlands firm I've never heard of.

No wonder the EPL can hear alarm bells...

Oh, and his photo was either 30 years old or photoshopped to death. What a narcissistic twat that man is.

Hallelujah!

Our problem is that whilst the likes of Trump and BoJo are allowed to go on without ever being required to be publicly accountable for their lies and crimes the so-called (but internationally inept, across the board) powers-that-be will, in politics and football, crucify any well-known entity such as a founder member of the Football League in a bid to persuade the many gullible people (Kenwright fans for instance, and all the other media-led supporters he's been allowed to generate through them as a 24 carat Toffee) in an effort to once again con us all that all is well in the credibility of politics and football, football being simplistic enough to persuade even non-fans that accountability is mandatory.

Meanwhile, the country's and football's demise in SO many other ways continues apace - unchecked, and, an Everton here-today-gone-tomorrow-punishment aside, which will hurt no-one but US, ensures the true bastards in politics and football continue to go unpunished.

Sorry if my post is hard to follow but bastards to whom ACCOUNTABILITY is anathema always rely on complexity of argument to evade ACCOUNTABILITY to the honest many.

Keep talking Bill, let the people see you for the slimy, egotistical, nepotistic fraud, who kidded the life out of them for years.

Those special Evertonians, that gave you two great memories last season no longer want you involved in Everton Football Club, Mr Kenwright, so do the decent thing and just fuck off.

As much as I'm a chartered member of the Thelwell Brigade, he hasn't accomplished the massive level of shrewdness of Brighton yet (it never hurts that their owner Tony Bloom is godzillion times smarter than Liar Bill and any of our current Board Members combined). But for the mess that he inherited, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt: it must be astronomically hard for him to dump massive non-performing & distressed sunk costs like Dele Alli, Mina, Gomes and Gbamin (that's £400K per week of wages on our books!), who can actually veto deals even after Thelwell has more than done his part in sourcing them.

(Even though I would hope that we can fetch £50MM from the Barcode on Gordon, I have to tip my hat to Thelwell for managing to get the eventual £40MM in a single payment up front)

Mina, Doucoure, Davies & Townsend and their £300K/week worth of wages are coming off the books in less than 3 months, so that's my Annual Round of Rejoice this year since we need to start cutting losses after Don Carlo's departure in the summer of 2021.

(If I were Thelwell, I would pick up the club's existing option of extending Doucoure's contract to June 2024 and then try flocking him this summer to the highest bidder. If no one bites, at least we would have cost certainty on a player that Dyche would utilise)

My instinct says that the EPL, is not clean, if process has failed, but the timing is interesting. If the book gets thrown, at Everton, and let’s see how this saga pans out, then there’s other big questions about this EPL, and certainly City, and Chelsea, based on other media disclosures about their respective financial affairs. Then there’s the examples of Derby County, and Juventus.

I’m only interested in the well-being of Everton FC, and the next game. But looking on the positive side, if Everton, can get tge results on the field, this season, and on merit stay up, and can get through this investigation, then, the board must go.

Start fresh, with a clean, slate.

Until this board is ousted, then I don’t see how any investment for all aspects, BMD, and sponsorship, will be secured.

It’s a nightmare, but let’s pray, that Everton, can get through this very painful era for the club.

Some how the language of financial accounting has been miss understood Who, hows, what, where, when, God only knows.

Paul, #75 - I don’t follow your logic: if we revive a penalty of sorts then yes, the board may go. IF however, we escape a penalty then the board will feel vindicated and remain.

The fans lose out in both scenarios.

The only slither of hope is Dyche, who’s probably the perfect manager to lead us through a new era of frugality, with lower wages and transfer spends till we can right the many, many wrongs of the last decade and get onto a more sustainable foot financially. Much will rely on his management, Thelwellls ability to scout better value and the academy’s ability to produce players for the first team (good 3-0 win by U21s last night). Kenwright and the board need to get out asap, to be replaced by cheaper, smarter alternatives.

I’m just as, if not more annoyed about Forest signing 30 players in one season. Surely that means they have used their three year allowance up in a single season - probably not against the rules, but fire sale inevitable next year? Or Chelsea who have signed several players on 8 and a half year contracts to reduce annual amortisation costs - surely building up unsustainable debt for the future, particularly as they won’t qualify for the Champions League? And historically, how is West Ham being gifted a stadium at a peppercorn rent and at taxpayers’ expense, consistent with fair play?

If Everton get punished for breaches of P&L, I look forward to similar punishments being meted out to other clubs next season.

" The first club yo lose 500m in 5 years and be sanctioned for P&S breach "

See if "Chairman Bill" is proud of that one.

But even more concerning is a report in the Daily Mail that the Premier League are claiming that their expressions of confidence that Everton during the Summer were in compliance was based on a preview of unaudited Accounts which proved to be inaccurate when they received the audited Accounts.If this is true the Board should be resigning immediately.

The other problem with this if true is that the demands of other Clubs for the Independent Commission to meet as soon as possible and adjudicate by the Summer will definitely take place to avoid legal action by other Clubs.It is likely that Burnley would take Legal Action anyway.

It really is sickening that despite the best efforts of Fans and the team that Everton may get relegation anyway due to the Board trying to cover up it's incompetence.The Premier League clearly have no confidence in the Everton Board, refering the Club to the Independent Commission, and this maybe entirely justified.

Could also explain the change of Auditor.

Wholly agree. That likely scenario of attracting an 'opportunistic investor' for Everton placed (or about to be placed) into administration brought to mind a mischievous but sickening thought... that our neighbours complete their revenge mission against post-Anfield Everton after we left them behind by acquiring our club... and getting a new stadium to boot. Please God, no...

Any organisation, with a basic business acumen, would sack their board, if they’d endured the scrutiny, that’s been brought into Everton, over the last few years.

If they had any decency, they’d resign in shame, but as you suggest, they may feel vindicated if the club, gets punished but survive this season, and retain their position next season in this EPL.

But the board is now a pariah, in view of the many Evertonians, around the world and for a passionate group of fans on match days, at Goodison Park, whom protest justifiably for their removal from the club.

I don’t see them attending Goodison Park, again, and frankly they’re not wanted nor welcome, by many Evertonians.

Their negligence is gross, and are responsible for the decline and financial miss management of Everton Football Club.

Hence this investigation hanging over the club.

But let’s see what the investigation brings, and the consequences.

I know City spent time in the lower leagues and have come back, and the stadium will be a draw for investors, but the difference is that there are more financial constraints than ever on new owners, so a new owner however rich wont be able to pump money in like the City owners did.
Also even if Sean Dyche keeps us up and we avoid any points deduction next season will be even harder as most of the decent players will have to be sold.

Add to that the £175m loan that Tottenham amazingly managed to get from the Bank of England at 0.5% interest, when they were struggling financially during Covid.

No conspiracy here in my view. We have flagrantly, repeatedly broken the rules unless there is any legal weight behind the 'assurances' we were apparently given.

I wouldn't be complaining about anyone 'getting away' with anything. Getting away with this appears to be our best hope!

Hopefully we can get through this, even though we all now know that the club we all fell in love with, has been recklessly mismanaged, meaning we are now rotten to the core.

Our fans will definitely keep Everton going, but we need honesty, we need transparency, and we need people who have got the same ambition as we have, running our football club.

The Auditors, independent, have concluded that there is a potential going concern issue if we are relegated, they don't usually go out of their way to make such statements as they have a very negative impact in financial circles. Potential investors would definitely be nervous about coming near us in the short term.

We all saw what the salary levels were as a percentage of turnover, our well run club shot the lights out in that regard.

The worst run club in the country!

If there is a hint of Everton trying to mislead the Premier League or other Premier League Clubs on Profit and Sustainability monitoring, which was a attempt by the Premier League, to prempt Government Regulation, Everton have lost any arguement. Having a unacceptable aggregated loss is a afterthought.

The fInancial consequences of relegation have been highlighted and analysed on ToffeeWeb threads for aleast two years.

I like your description of fragrantly as we might come out of this smelling of roses but if we've done it flagrantly we're in big trouble

It's going to be one hell of a fight to remove this deluded fantasist from our club. He is the cancer in it.

As I've been calling for 15-odd years, Kenwright and Co should be run out of town immediately. How pathetic and selfish this man is. His comment caught on video, half cut, poking accusations at the Blue Union sums up the despicable rat.

Those so-called Evertonians that have backed him all these years look pretty fucking stupid. Ignorance is bliss after all.

I’ve long thought it would end in tears with William the red, and I’m now sitting here tired, quietly pondering what we have become and how it has been allowed to happen.

My only emotion is disgust, followed by anger, at how this charlatan has played us for fools for many years, by constantly using divide and conquer, to split the fanbase, and now the poor bastard isn’t even allowed to go to Goodison for his own safety.

You did your best Billy Boy, and I’m so proud that you haven’t once even contemplated deserting our beloved blues,, even though a lot of the fans are inexplicably blaming you for everything🤮

It appears we are going to have to find a way of explaining a difference of £250m plus. Last time I looked we would have been struggling to get close to £200m, taking all the allowed exclusions, stadium and Covid into account.

The financial performance, if not the playing performance, is moving in the right direction but I don't see that as much mitigation. We appear to be up a gumtree.

The truth will come out in the wash in the coming months.The things that happen to people are very like the people they happen too.Kenwright for years carried on all the time and bluffed alot of people, keeping the true situation under wrapped and surrounding himself with mates to help him.

I was surprised by the amount of manipulation that went on by Everton to counter the fan lead revenue and head off fan protest.Even that ended up farce with FAB throught Jaz's questions, showing them for what they are. Then we had the accusations against fans, with a Police denial and the Media apologizing for printed such unfounded tripe.

I now think that Kenwright does not know why he is staying away from home games, and now a reason has arose he walked right into.He have resigned a week ago.

Philip #6, they were as surprised as I was that the sun rose this morning. And will be equally non-surprised when China invades Taiwan in the next 2 to 5 years.

Doesn't this shit that we're in finally tell Moshiri what the fans have known all along? That BK and his board have to go! And based on Christine's post #68, it's only going to get worse, needing £60 million profit this season to avoid being reported to the commission again!

And BK has sunk to a new despicable low in using the annual accounts to play his victim card and vilify the fans that are doing more than him to help our Club survive. I never liked him before, now he's just become loathsome.

We can deliberate forever… What I and many more would like to know is what our punishment will be. We have done wrong and we need to take our punishment, but what will that be?

That's all I care about now. We all know those that have gotten us into this mess and we all know nothing will happen to them. So let's just get this over with and move on.

The impact of Everton overspending on the iverall competition has been, minimal. In fact supporters would say we are a far worse team spending big on fat inflated transfer fees and wages, than when we were scrabbling around for Frees and up & coming players.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, but we turned a blind eye before suddenly being outraged last year.

Sadly, the next 2/3 seasons our accounts will be scrutinised and player purchases limited. Sadly, the board aimed for the sky and hit an iceberg. The stadium can't come quick enough to get rid of this board. Relegation is on my mind as such debts and the new stadium may lead us down a path of no return.

As much as our board are to blame. Surely the Premier League must take some responsibility? They have failed to implement their own rules and regulations over profitability and sustainability.

Stay positive all! The door has not shut yet!!

EXACTLY!!

But using his sympathy trump cards at the announcement at the final accounts is stooping even lower, if that is at all possible.

It is up there with a serial arsonist being told, he can no longer be in charge of the fuel stock, and bemoaning the injustice of it.

As I understand it, 17/18 was the start point until we added in 21/22, as per the recently published accounts.

So the years now are 18/19, 19/20, 20/21 and 21/22. I think that is correct.

Problem is, 17/18, which has now dropped out, was, I recall, only a small loss, much less of one than the year that has now replaced it, 21/22. So it actually worsens our position overall.

On 6 February 2023, Man City have been charged at the conclusion of a 4-year investigation with more than 100 charges to provide accurate financial information, from 2009 to 2018, and haven't been referred to an independent commission.

So why is there no commission set up for them?

Different language used by the media perhaps, but it's my understanding that both clubs have been referred to an Independent Commission, which in effect means they have both been charged?

I think Christine makes a really valid point about us having no faith whatsoever in the Everton board and this has got many of us possibly already assuming the worst.

Can anyone comment on this?

The way I understand it, each player's transfer fee is 'amortised' over the length of his (initial?) contract. That means his initial cost is not assigned as a loss straight away but is distributed in proportion as an incremental loss each year.

In the case of Gylfi Sigurdsson, his initial transfer fee was reported to be £40M and his contract duration was to be 5 years. So, in the first year of his contract, Financial Year 2017-18, he would have been marked down as an £8M loss.

Same the following year... and so on, £8M each year, up to and including 2021-22, which was the last year of his contract. At which point, he was released by the club with zero value and zero transfer fee as we had unilaterally terminated his career 1 year earlier. We had rendered him null and void as a professional footballer by suspending him, while he was still a perfectly capable and valuable member of the squad... but I digress.

(Although you would think the initial transfer fee must appear on the Profit and Loss balance sheet for the year in which he was purchased for that to be an accurate representation of cashflow? Unless the player was actually purchased on £8M annual instalments... Perhaps I don't really understand this after all!!!)

But what about his inordinate wages, I hear you cry? Well, they come out of a different pot, a very large pot labelled Player Wages and are accounted for as such in the Annual Report. Irrespective of the fact that he was not playing. In fact, you wouldn't want to know what proportion of the club's wage bill goes to people who are not contributing in one way or another... but I digress again.

So bottom line... there is no need for his career-ending actions to be claimed in the accounts somewhere without publically stating it. His full costs are accounted for without needing any additional write-off or claim against Covid. Although maybe they attributed the player's alleged behaviour to the unnatural stresses imposed by Covid lockdown??? Hmmm… maybe you're on to something!

“Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has delayed plans to shake up his executive team at Goodison Park in the hope that external investors could be attracted by the prospect of a seat on the board.

“The Iranian businessman was considering making changes given the club's financial and footballing difficulties, with the positions of chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale thought to be under threat, but that will be put on hold until the process of bringing in investors has concluded.”

A newspaper story based on no facts to speak of. Nothing new there…

Who was it who asked for our accounts to be looked into again, along with Burnley???

The irony if ours are above board and Leeds are found to be guilty…

The Premier League has played a massive role in the ridiculous increase in player costs (fees, wages, agent fees), all supported through increasing debt.

Players 30 years ago would cost a few hundred thousand up to a million or two for a record fee. 10 years ago players would be a couple of million up to £20M or £30M for what would be a 'huge expense'. Now that £20M or £30M is what gets you a Championship player or a player with no experience or a player out of favour, while a top player is £100M+.

Wages and agent fees have followed a similar trend, but there is no way income has increased at similar levels (except maybe for Man Utd).

More and more clubs are going to fall in breach of these rules.