Barnsley Football Club Accounts for season 2014/15

The club's accounts for last season can now be viewed on the Companies House web site. To view enter the following web address

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04573250

then click on "Filing History"

there is a list which is topped by "Accounts for Medium Company made up to 31 May 2015" Next to it is "View PDF (26 pages)". Click view PDF and you are in

 

Turnover dropped from £9.4 million to £4.8 million.

Net liabilities of £5.1 million.

The club really is worth nothing.

Sold players for £475,000. Who does that relate to?

 

Guessing Chris O'Grady in 2014 Summer?

 

Thanks for that RR.

 

Salaries larger than turnover ?

eek

 

Also, that's a drop of £3million from the previous season. Credit to the club for managing to cut the wage bill that much, just hope it came from high earning players rather than backroom people on lower wages. God knows what we were paying the likes of Frimpong, Proshwitz, Shea and a few others that relegation season.

Just shows in black and white what an impact relegation had and, if anything, there's an argument that there's as pressing a need for parachute payments for clubs going from the Championship to League One such is the discrepancy in income. Either that, or do away with them from the Premier League and tell clubs to be sensible with their contracts and finances like clubs lower down the pecking order have to be, and make it a more even playing field. But that will impact on the quality of star clubs in that beloved Premier League can bring in, so those with power will refuse it and the playing field will stay as level as the bobbley, slopey one on Farm Road fields.

Am I allowed to say 'Love Barnsley, Hate Football', even though football seems an enjoyable, piss easy game at the moment?!

 

Some worrying things in there. The club is massively reliant on Crynes guarantees with the bank (note that secured overdraft is to £1.98m and the overdraft rose approx £500k to end at £1.41m).

A huge operating loss, which i'd hope has been largely neutralised in 15/16, and should be considering how small the playing squad has been and how young/ inexperienced many of the players are.

A huge amount of historic loss to claw back already, nearly £10m. Football is such a mess.

 

Certainly shows in black & white the challenge of getting a 'good' team on a much reduced turnover.

And I totally agree, the way money is distributed in football is a sick joke.

 

A few interesting bits in there:

Three listed as formal directors now - Maurice, Barry and Ben - not Patrick. Ben was added on 10th Feb last season. There are other documents on the website that suggest that James Cryne was both appointed and terminated as a director on the same date that Ben was appointed to the board on February 10th last year, which is mildly odd I guess. All these things happened two days before Danny was sacked. Not that this is a suggestion that the events were in anyway related.

£2.9m Trading loss in the year, before Player trading and applicable taxes and interest costs, taking us to overall a £3m loss for the financial year. Not great. We were a million miles off living within our means, which I guess is why we saw the wage bill necessarily slashed so wildly this summer just gone.

Balance sheet is a bit messy with debt increased to £4.0m, and remember there are no fixed assets held here other than plant and fixtures and fittings as the stadium and assets are in a separate company owned in a 50:50 share between Patrick and the council. From skimming the accounts I can't see who the longer term debt is to but it looks like we have a bank overdraft of £1.6m, which is personally guaranteed by Patrick up to £1.9m, and then I guess we have to assume that presumably the majority of the remainder is to Patrick and so consequently we are dependant on his goodwill not to call the debt in that we have built up to him.

 

I was told last week that Barnsley council don't own 50% any more.I don't know if this is true or not.

 

Nothing's been submitted to Companies House to suggest that the ownership of the assets has changed in any way.

 

votes?

 

I had a quick look at the accounts and what interested me was in note 21 Reserves.

There is an increase in the share subscription account of £2.9m.

This is money that has been invested in the company for the issue of further shares.

If this money had been introduced by the way of a loan then it would show as debt rather than equity. In effect it reduces the deficit in shareholders funds by £2.9m or £3.9m in total.

To me it shows how much the club is reliant on its owner's continued support.

 

Cryne out?

We need promotion asap, and to then continue down this current cheap and cheerful strategy, so as to stand a chance of killing some of those debts/losses. Of course, if John Stones is flogged, that'd help. And didn't we get coin for Mason Holgate too so that'll show up next March when we do this thread. As will the LJ compo. And we've had a cup run. It's not as gloomy looking forward. Especially if we get promoted via Wembley.

 

Also shows the impact of the drop in TV revenue share. £6million was mentioned I think. Patrick Cryne is crucial to our ongoing survival as a club for the forseeable future and, whilst I know his health isn't clever, I hope that he can understand that the majority of supporters such as myself value his presence greatly but when questioning some of the decisions made at board level that they aren't personal, but genuine club supporters opinions. I think the split opinions on the Wilson sacking are the best example.

Cheap and cheerful is fine with me. We've done it before and with the mood around the club now, and on the pitch and on the management team, we can bloody well do it again. We've wasted a few years recruiting rubbish and whilst it might bite me on the arse in a few months, we've brought some quality in recently.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

 

agree Andy. The champ clubs get a rice from the Premier league from next summer too.

 

I'd rather get paid in money than rice. They've been done.

 

Posters may also be interested in the accounts of Oakwell Community Assets Ltd

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04916500/filing-history

 

Well I have looked at the accounts, I have analysed them and I now have a headache. But for what it is worth, here are my thoughts. Where there is a figure in brackets, it relates to last year.

As most people will have worked out, the club lost £3,004,116 (£2,070,734). Turnover was just £4,812,360 (£9,371,041), but last year Mr Cryne donated £840,000, which is included in this figure. Had he elected to introduce cash into the club in the same way during 2014/15 season, it would have allowed the club to count it as income for SCMP purposes. However, this year he chose to introduce £2,900,000 through a quasi-share capital route. Since he will clearly never see a return, it is not clear why he chose this route, although in the past he has chosen to introduce cash via donations, loans and quasi-share capital. During this year, Mr Cryne has chosen to reduce the amount of his outstanding loan £2,660,588 (£3,043,927), whilst at the same time increasing the amount of quasi-share capital.

Wages are not broken down between player wages and others. Total wages were £5,371,120 (£8,671,264). The club clearly struggled to control its pay costs, because even the reduced figure was higher than turnover. Transfer fees on player sales was £475,000 (£400,000) presumably for the transfer of Chris O’Grady to Brighton. Transfer fees on player purchases was £692,000, presumably for Sam Winnall, Connor Hourihane and Josh Scowen. The comparative for the previous year was £606,250, and again I presume this sum related to the purchase of Chris O’Grady and Dale Jennings. It is club policy to amortise (write off) transfer fees over the term of a player’s contract unless the player is sold or unless it becomes clear that the ongoing valuation of the player is less than the unamortised value of his contract. At the end of the year, the remaining balance of transfer fees paid was written off.

Directors fees were £46,148 (£0). It may be a coincidence, but Ben Mansford became a director this year.

The club’s bank overdraft was £1,412,683 ((£943,187). Because the club has no assets upon which the bank can guarantee repayment of their loan, the have to rely on a guarantee by Mr Cryne, who will repay the loan in the event of default. It is not clear whether 31 May is a date that represents the usual state of the overdraft. The club would not have collected all its season ticket revenue in respect of the following season by this time.

To summarise Mr Cryne’s cost to date

Share Capital £3,900,001 (£1,000,001)
Loan £2,660,588 (£3,043,927)
Total £6,560,589 (£4,043,928)
Oakwell Holdings Ltd (est) £3,000,000 (£3,000,000)
Total £9,560,589 (£7,043,928)

Contingent Liability £1,412,683 (£943,187)

Not as long as a Minority Report, but just as boring.

 

Accounts are of course always a snapshot in time. I have been told by a knowledgeable source that the player wages have since been reduced to around £2M, and that Lee Johnson was regarded as having helped in this process. That may well have contributed to the leeway he was shown before things began to improve.