The recently filed Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30th June 2022 show that Charlton Athletic made an operating loss of £10.1m in the financial year in question. This was the season which started with Nigel Adkins in charge and ended with Johnny Jackson not being retained. The season we lost at home to Cheltenham, Accrington, Lincoln and Morecambe but managed to avoid our worst finish since 1974 by achieving thirteenth place.

The loss was reduced to £7.4m by profit on disposal of players of £3.3m. This arose from the sales of Mason Burstow and James Beadle plus contingent payments received via previous sales of Ademola Lookman, Nick Pope and Anfernee Dijksteel. The club paid out transfer fees of £1.7m, including those in January 2022 for Chuks Aneke and Scott Fraser.

The Strategic Report notes that, "once interest depreciation, amortisation are taken into account, the loss before taxation for the year was £6.3m.

Wages were £108 for every £100 of income. The average number of employees increased by 18 over the previous season, with 7 of these being on the playing, training and football management side. Severance payments of £565k were paid out.

The club received a loan of £3.5m from Clear Ocean Capital (Thomas Sandgaard) during the year. The Directors' Report notes that further loans totalling £6.05m were received between July 2022 and March 2023. These are in addition to the loan received from Clear Ocean Capital of £10.5m in March 2022. The total owed is thus now in the region of £20m. This is interest free and repayable on demand at any time.

The Directors' Report also says that:

"The short term objective is to be competitive in League One and target play-off places to regain Championship status as soon as possible. The Company will continue to monitor and control operating costs and maximise revenue opportunities to further invest into the first team squad and further develop the Youth Academy"

The notes to the financial statements also report that:

"It is possible that the Company will be sold by the current owner Mr Sandgaard in the forseeable future. In those circumstances it is expected that his support for the club will cease. However, for such a transaction to occur, the directors would expect evidence to be available to support the new owner's desire and ability to continue to provide with reasonable assurance necessary support required by the club to enable it to continue to fulfil its financial obliigations for the forseeable future."

Under contingent liabilities the following is noted:

"Contingent consideration may be payable by the club to Staprix NV if the club is promoted to the Premier League before 25th September 2030.....The details of which have not been disclosed as they are considered to be prejudicial to the arrangements entered into by the club as part of the 25th September 2020 transaction"  (25/9/2020 is the date of the purchase of the club by Thomas Sandgaard)

(We are grateful to football finance expert Kieran Maguire for his assistance in producing this summary.)

 

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