Just been muddying my feet browsing the Portsmouth News site and I came across this 'informed' comment from someone. Has the trading company just released interim or full accounts for the year? Anyone with better insight and analysis than myself care to give a summary of what's what, financial health and trading position. "You know the most fun about all of this is the comments from those in stripey pyjamas down the road...... Just hilarious Some FACTS you might find of interest. Last published accounts for SFC £9m pre tax loss (of which only -£1.1m was down to player trading) hmmm living beyond their means then.....how naughty. They owe £7m to creditors to be repaid this year, Additional £6m owed over 5 years A further £8.4m Loan to be repaid within 5 years PLUS £20.4m loan owed in 5 years TOTAL DEBT of £42m+ sound familiar......... his at a club spending £7m more than it is earning. Oh well glad to see they are only spending what they earn I mean we don't want clubs who overspend in our league now do we, some would class that as cheating and state that all their trophies won in that time should be taken away, still no problem for them there then..... Exactly the same as Gydamak, Liebherr cleared the initial debt but the rest of the monies has been lent in loans. No difference to PFC Also, SFC do not own the ground, or the training facilities. Now wonder who that sounds like....... And each year the debt gets larger. Makes our £46m seem reasonable, at least much of ours will be cleared whatever happens Thought that would make you all laugh........ ALL this information is available off of their published accounts from companies house, recommend it, a thoroughly good read!!!" There are some inaccuracies in there as you would expect. We do own our stadium and facilities and our assets far outweigh our liabilities.
Ignore it. It's the same moron from SaintsWeb. Trying to divert attention from one club to another. No proof, just a mind like a mash potatoe.
All debts accrued are stated as such even though they will be ultimately owed to the Liebherr fund and the current Liebherr owners. So we aren't in debt. At all. We own our stadium 100% too.
We don't own the training ground yet we're renovating it? How does the dumb skate moron think that works?
From what I can remember from the 10/11 accounts, we made an overall loss of £7 mil (they were released around April 2011 for the period April 2010-April 2011). The accounts for this year haven't been released yet.
I thought our position was very clear, as publicly stated by Nicola Cortese on several occasions: we have a five year plan to get back to the Premier league, at which point our income will exceed our expenditure and we will start to pay back the loan from the Liebherr Trust. Until then, we will run at a loss, but our debts are underwritten by the Trust so they are not "real" debts, and we have no other creditors. Not sure of the finer points but that's the gist of it. If any other club in the country has a better business plan, I'd like to know who they are.
Funny, if we get promoted to the Premier League, £50 million gets added to the SFC bank account straight away. That's the kind of income that the Skates can only dream of. Promotion will also bring a huge increase in TV revenue and sponsorship so all finances concerned with club will no doubt be reviewed and rescructured accordingly. Ie; debts will be paid off. The quoted in the OP's comments is clutching at straws I feel...
Spot on Chilco, all of our debts are serviceable and unlike our beloved neighbours we are paying our taxes, players and monthly bills.
I do remember there was something about the stadium being held separate from the club, but there are probably perfectly valid reasons for this...don't profess to understand finance. We were at a loss under the last accounts, but most debts are to the Leihberrs who own us anyway, so not the same as owing businesses and individuals. These are all accounting figures. I would be suprised if we are breaking even this year as Nicola said we can't make money until we are in PL.
Don't think we'd be laying out on the development of the academy if there was any imminent financial problems. The debts are mainly from the original interest-free directors loan set to be repaid in 5 years that was needed to set us up as we had no money to run the club at the outset. As Markus said: Southampton FC would never need to borrow from a bank again. There is no sign of the Leihberrs pulling out and they are not so poor that they would need to pull the rug from under us without something being sorted out properly.
If you look at the situation at Man United, where the Glaziers purchased the club via a leveraged buyout, the club instantly owed them many tens of millions of pounds in loans which were simply used to pay the previous owners off. The difference at Saints is that Markus bought the club at a bargain price and then invested real money in the infrastructure, such as the Academy, Staplewood etc, as well as strengthening the squad. This investment has paid off and we are on track. Don't let some WUMs' sour grapes put you off your stride.
Chillax guys, Saints' finances are in safe hands. Never hurts to take a look at the money side of the club from time to time though.
