2019/20 CAFC accounts published

Thu Jul 15 2021

Charlton Athletic Football Company accounts for the year ending June 2020 have been published and are available here:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01788466/filing-history

The accounts cover the period during which the club was sold to ESI and predate the arrival of Thomas Sandgaard. However, they include "post balance sheet events" which refer to his purchase of the club in September 2020 and note 29 makes it clear that there would be a payment to Duchatelet's company Staprix NV in the event that Charlton are promoted to The Premier League before 2030.

CAST will be producing a simple guide to what the accounts tell us and we aim to publish it next week.

In the meantime, this is what the club say:

"Charlton Owner, Thomas Sandgaard, who took control of the club in September 2020, said: “The 2019/20 season was a difficult one for Charlton fans, a season where they feared for the future of the club. The staff and fans fought bravely just to keep Charlton going.

“The financial statements highlight just how bad things got that season. It is why we ran the Our Club Your Car campaign at the end of 2020, giving away one of the club’s Range Rovers, to highlight the challenges clubs have had with bad owners. The EFL have made important changes on this and hopefully things are in a better place than they were.

“For us at Charlton, we now have stability and that collective effort that kept the club going has been maintained – already more than 8,500 season tickets have been sold for the 2021/22 season. We have an exciting future ahead of us and I’m looking forward to seeing supporters back at The Valley this season.”

Below are the topline points from the full set of accounts:

  • The report highlights that the COVID-19 virus created uncertainty for the football club. The season was temporarily suspended and Charlton went into this in a “challenging position with questions over its ownership and finances at the time”.
  • Charlton Athletic made a loss of £1.1m before taxation compared to the loss of £10.1m the previous year
  • Revenue from central income increased from £1.5m to £7.8m because of the increased revenue in the Sky Bet Championship compared with Sky Bet League One
  • Matchday income increased from £4.1m to £4.5m due to improved revenue generated by increases in attendance over the 19 league games (compared to 23) played in front of supporters
  • Commercial income increased from £1.3m to £2.1m, while other income reduced slightly from £899,000 to £887,000.
  • Overall total income was up more than £7m from £7.87m to £15.37m.
  • Profits relating to player trading increased from £2.9m to £4.4m, with several players contingency clauses triggered during the financial year from historical player sales including Ademola Lookman, Joe Gomez, Kasey Palmer, Nick Pope and Karlan Grant.
  • The Charlton academy continued to produce first team players, with six academy graduates making their first team debut in the 2019/20 season.

 

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire commented:

"Charlton spent £262,000 in the season but spent £522,000 on motor vehicles, which is odd"

"Charlton terminated leases for six vehicles after the end of the season at a cost of £261,000"

"Average weekly wage for first teamer was £5,700 - compared to Championship average of £15,000"