Liverpool's annual club accounts show £50 million loss amid FFP concerns

In their latest set of accounts, Liverpool jotted down an annual loss of £49.8 million excluding tax.

The latest figures will raise concern over over the club’s ability to conform with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules. The rule, as it stands, allows a loss of €45m (£38m) over three seasons.

From August 2011 to May 2012, Liverpool made a loss of £40.5m and posted a £49.3 loss in the year prior.

Although the total revenue broke the £200m mark for the first time to £206m, Liverpool dropped three places to 12th in Deloitte’s Football Money League last season. Liverpool is the highest-ranked club in the Money League that is not playing in the Champions League. Owing to a fantastic season so far, Liverpool will fancy their chances to get placed in the Champions League, which will significantly increase revenues for the club.

The club’s managing director, Ian Ayre, pointed out that despite posting a loss, the club has made good progress this season by increasing commercial revenue (up from £64m to £98m) and in reducing net bank debt (down from £65m to £45m).

“These results demonstrate that the financial health of the club continues to make good progress as we continue our journey to transform the club on and off the pitch,” Ayre said.

“Over the past four or five years, revenue has been consistently increasing from around £170m in 2009 to over £200m today, and external debt has decreased significantly to less than £50m.

“With a hugely supportive ownership group, we have taken a measured approach to bring back financial stability to this great club by ensuring it is properly structured on and off the pitch.

“During the period, we signed six new players including Daniel Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and Joe Allen, and we extended seven players’ contracts which included Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Martin Kelly, Lucas Leiva and Raheem Sterling – adding depth and strength to the squad while continuing to develop young talent. In addition, nine players were transferred out and eight players were loaned out.

“These financial results are now up to 18 months old and we have continued to make further progress since this reporting period. Our strong links remain with our existing partners, signing new deals with Standard Chartered, Garuda and Carlsberg, and we have recently announced five new partnerships which endorses the global appeal of the LFC brand.

“We continue to invest in our digital and TV platforms and recently announced nine new television partnerships, allowing millions of fans across the world to watch Liverpool games and receive exclusive content.

“We have also seen good progress being made regarding a proposed stadium expansion at Anfield. Any final decision continues to be based on certainty; however, since the partnership was established between Liverpool City Council, Your Housing Group and LFC only 16 months ago, we regard the progress as extremely positive.

“Given where Liverpool Football Club was only a few years ago, the progress that has been made since FSG acquired the club has brought back much-needed stability with an ambitious vision which everyone is focused on.”