Ranked : Premier League Clubs With The Most Debts
Premier League may be the most expensive football league in the world, but the cumulative net debt of Premier League clubs surpassed £3 billion for the first time in a decade. The COVID-19 pandemic made the situation even worse. In this article, we will look at the ranking of the Premier League clubs with the most debts.
=17. Newcastle United [£0m}
Newcastle United had debt over £111m owed to previous owner Mike Ashley, however, with the takeover of the club by Saudi Public Investment Fund, the club is now debt-free. The £300m deal has been funded by the country’s Public Investment Fund, which is seen as separate from the state, finally allowing the bid to go through. They are backed by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman, and are set to make massive investments in the years to come.
=17. Chelsea [€0m]
Chelsea had a debt of over a billion dollars but Roman Abramovich waved away the debt owed to him by the club. This means the new Chelsea owners, who took over the club recently, won’t need to pay back any debt at the start of their ownership.
=17. Nottingham Forest [€0m]
Forest owner Marinakis turned £12million worth of loans into equity shares. This has essentially made the made debt-free. Marinakis has been determined to bring Forest back to the top flight ever since taking over in 2017. And with the club’s promotion to Premier League for the 2022-23 season, exciting times are ahead for Forest fans.
=17. Manchester City [€0m]
Manchester City essentially does not have debt on them. However, their parent City Football Group (CFG) took out a $650million loan (£473m). That money is said to be earmarked to keep growing the CFG, by financing a new stadium for New York City, and other projects. Manchester City on their own, are very self-sufficient with a great revenue model and are debt-free.
16. Aston Villa [€5.6m]
NSWE’s accounts show Villa only have £5million gross debt, all owed to group undertakings, which has been cut from £50million four years ago as Sawiris and Edens have repaid old loans. The club announced drastically reduced losses of £38million, which were as high as £100m the year before.
15. Leeds United [€58m]
The annual turnover has leapt from £54 million to £171 million with central revenue payments rising from £7 million in 2019-20 to a staggering £110 million in 2020-21. The pre-tax profit was £26 million, with loan interest of £21 million being waived, meaning the club were left with an operating profit of £5.5 million. The purchasing of shares by 49ers Enterprises in December 2020, injected £23million into the club and shareholder loans were £21million were waived in the accounting period.
14. Bournemouth [€73m]
The club accounts confirmed that Maxim Demin, the owner of Bournemouth, has provided interest-free shareholder loans of £24.5 million since June 30, 2021. Maxim Demin loaned the club a further £28m during the 20/21 season. Additionally, they secured £10m from the banks in payday loans for player transfer sales.
Why are you allocating a debt taken on by CFG to Man City. CFG is the Umbrella group overseeing all 11/12 (I’ve lost count) clubs owned or partially own throughout the world. So why is the cost of a replacement New York City stadium allocated as a debt to Man City.
All Business at some point take a large loan to expand CFG is no different when it works well done but if it goes awry watch out.
Crudely put, as the parent company CFG used some of the loan for the stadium in NY and some for other projects like Man city squad (how do you think pep spent 1 billion euros since he arrived on players) some club money sure but also hand outs from CFG.
The loan CFG took out had to be secured just the same as it does if we want a large loan we secure against our house.
They could have secured with a single part of a business under the umbrella or proportionately against many parts, but they are not going to divulge that to us.
The top 6 all owe large amounts of money, whether to the owner like in Chelsea’s case or, Man city to a parent club.
I have seen reports in financial papers in my position as a financial adviser that 35 million a year is paid by Man City jointly to CFG & Silver Lake (which Includes costs) in interest alone, and due to Covid that figure is set to grow.
If CFG get into financial difficulties that loan money will be redeemed from whatever parts or partial parts of the business was in the loan agreement & CFG.
I am glad my own club Aston Villa and many others in the PL clubs prefer to be there or there about whilst maintaining 0% Debt for the clubs security.
The downside is sometimes we can’t always compete as well as clubs who are happy to go into debt for whatever reason including all the top 6 all owe significant money for their positions that’s a no brainer.
My hat is off to Norwich City & always has been as they are the only totally self funded club in the PL No handouts from Delia if they don’t make it on TV Rights, merchandise, hospitality and ticket sales they don’t spend it.
They are only now in debt due to Covid by a mere 14 Million.
This is why football is wrong, Teams should be capped to only spend on a squad what they can afford without going into debt or should I say debt above the club’s value @ sale so loans can be paid off if things go awry.
It is like this, I get a loan well out of my means for any reason or just to look good then I lose my job, can’t pay the loan as my assets are not sufficient I am Bankrupt, unless I can come up with a payment plan the loan company is happy with.
Trust me we don’t do that often as we want money back plus the interest, sobering thought for clubs in debt.
The Premier league would be more interesting and potentially a more level playing if cap’s were set.