Poor state of Reading FC finances revealed
Accounts for the club have been published and they don't make happy reading
Last updated 14th Apr 2021
Reading football club lost 43 million pounds in the 12 months ending in June last year.
The club's accounts have just been published showing that it has borrowed 87 million pounds from the owner, and has accumulated losses of 138 million pounds.
Auditors say there has to be a 'material doubt as to whether the company can continue as a going concern'.
The main details:
Reading made operating losses of £43.5m, that compares to £40.7m the previous year, accumulated losses totalled £138m.
Wages were 211% of revenue - the previous year they'd been 226%
Reading spent almost £16m on transfers and received £2.6m in return.
The club made £1.6m from the sales, appearance fees and sell-on clauses from Leandro Bacuna, Alex McCarthy, Rob Dickie, Oliver Norwood, Jack Stacey, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Tariqe Fosu, George Evans, Michael Hector, Lasha Dvali, Josh Barrett and Andrija Novakovich.
The average weekly wage of the first team was £17,460.
The club's overall wage and salary bill was £37.6m
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire broke the news to Reading fans this morning on his Twitter feed
The author of 'The Price of Football' broke down the figures and ended with the gloomy comments of the auditors.
Speaking today Reading Manager Veljko Paunovic said: "The situation we have is from the past and the decisions made before I came here. I believe, truly, what we've done this year by not spending a penny has developed an overall picture where the team can benefit. That's the picture I can offer to our fans."
What will concern many is these figures are for the year ending June 2020, and won't fully recognise the impact of the pandemic and the lost match-day revenue.