RFC 2020/21 accounts

[Royals and Racers]

Published today- i am out and about so cannot link, but doesn’t make for good reading !!

[Hendo]

Pre-tax loss of £35.7m (down from £42m)
Turnover £13.8m (down from £17.8m)
Matchday rev' £0.58m (down from £3.58m)
Commercial rev' £3.3m (down from £4.6m)
Media rev' £9.4m (up from £8.2m)
Wage bill £32.2m (down from £37.6m)

Would actually say that there is some improvement here.

Pre-tax losses are down (good)
Turnover is down (COVID)
Matchday revenue is down (COVID)
Commercial revenue (probably COVID as well)
Media revenue (up!)
Wage bill is down (good)

[Hound]

yeah still horrendous but at least you can see some of the impact of letting previous players go. Not sure if this includes the Olise transfer fee.

that wage bill still has Aluko, Baldock and a few others that I can't remember in there as well. i assume the EFL had pretty much a fair idea of what the accounts would be like and was included in the points punsihment and business plans

[Hendo]

yeah still horrendous but at least you can see some of the impact of letting previous players go. Not sure if this includes the Olise transfer fee.

that wage bill still has Aluko, Baldock and a few others that I can't remember in there as well. i assume the EFL had pretty much a fair idea of what the accounts would be like and was included in the points punsihment and business plans

Not sure if the Olise fee is included in that, if Aluko and Baldock are still included in the wages, I would doubt it, so there is another improvement.

For sure the EFL would've known about this.

While it is still bad, it is all trending in the right direction, (COVID being the big outlier, but that will be the same for every club) matchday revenue will be up this time next year as well, with the stadiums being open and everything.

[Smudge]

While it is still bad, it is all trending in the right direction, (COVID being the big outlier, but that will be the same for every club) matchday revenue will be up this time next year as well, with the stadiums being open and everything.

They need to get Bovril back in stock for the matchday revenues to recover fully though.....

As much as these figures aren't great, we know that changes have been made recently and match day revenues will have increased (Bovril sales aside). So hopefully the EFL are expecting these figures and we move forward.......

*edit to add - EFL P&S rules for 20/21 are different due to covid I believe. So hopefully we won't be hit with any more fines or deductions.

[Zip]

Do the accounts run from April to April? Wages still far too high.

[SCIAG]

*edit to add - EFL P&S rules for 20/21 are different due to covid I believe. So hopefully we won't be hit with any more fines or deductions.

There is some relaxation (we are judged on a four year average rather than three) but the main thing to note is that these aren’t the figures P&S looks at, because things like the academy need to be deducted.

[Lower West]

What's the plan going forward? As to date has been a total car crash. Fit and proper no chance. Why the other football ventures failed is becoming very apparent.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Given average wage is around £15k a week in these accounts, a sustainable model isn't conducive with higher end championship players.

So, if we survive, the squad will be of much lower quality in the next few years.

Gambling is the only option, unless new revenue streams can be found.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

yeah still horrendous but at least you can see some of the impact of letting previous players go. Not sure if this includes the Olise transfer fee.

that wage bill still has Aluko, Baldock and a few others that I can't remember in there as well. i assume the EFL had pretty much a fair idea of what the accounts would be like and was included in the points punsihment and business plans

Not sure if the Olise fee is included in that, if Aluko and Baldock are still included in the wages, I would doubt it, so there is another improvement.

For sure the EFL would've known about this.

While it is still bad, it is all trending in the right direction, (COVID being the big outlier, but that will be the same for every club) matchday revenue will be up this time next year as well, with the stadiums being open and everything.

I'm not sure this impacts us in terms of FFP regulations as we have been sanctioned against these already this season, as it ran until April 2021 and we were punished in the summer and then in November with the points deduction.

Our wages are still high because we had a lot of players on the books that were released in the summer, including also the sale of Puscas and Rafael will be taken off come 2021/22 accounts, as well as the Olise sale.

I could be wrong, but I believe the new 3 year cycle of FFP begins as of this next set of accounts. So whilst they were still really bad for last year, this years holds major significance as it will determine how much of a loss (or profit) we have made which goes towards the new set of accounts.

[Hound]

A new Swiss ramble thread up on twitter which is interesting, though doesn't tell us a lot we don't know

However, one thing I picked up is both 21m and certainly 16m wage bill is VERY low compared to the rest of the div in recent years. lower than the recent accounted bills of the likes of PNE and Millwall. So we'll certainly need to recruit very well. And get rid of Liam bloody Moore

[YorkshireRoyal99]

A new Swiss ramble thread up on twitter which is interesting, though doesn't tell us a lot we don't know

However, one thing I picked up is both 21m and certainly 16m wage bill is VERY low compared to the rest of the div in recent years. lower than the recent accounted bills of the likes of PNE and Millwall. So we'll certainly need to recruit very well. And get rid of Liam bloody Moore

Yes it is extremely low for the level we are operating at, but I guess that it will be based off our turnover. We've had plenty of sponsorship deals come in to the club over the last couple of seasons, including the stadium naming rights going elsewhere.

I'd expect next years accounts to look quite drastically different to last years, which would be a positive. For all of the Dai's ridiculous spending, they have also worked hard to try and make us a more commercially viable club. Hence the gamble to the PL, the massive wages etc, but also the sponsorship deals as well.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ooof. So much for the people saying we'd halved our wage bill or whatever nonsense was spouted 18 odd months ago.

Going in the right direction, but far too slowly. Really needed to be substantially under £30m in wages for this one. No wonder we got a points deduction this season.

Where are all these wages going? Who was it we shifted for this one? McClearly, Gunter, Obita, Baldock, Mannone, Aluko? Or a different season?

Means we have to have halved our wage bill in two years to comply with the FL wage budget next season. Given that involves reducing wages by about £16m (£8m each season), and that shows a reduction of £5m. I'd say we're properly oxf*rd.

Anyone think we cut our wage bill 150% more last season than the one before... I'm very unconvinced.

[PATRIQT]

With all the players OOC this summer, that helps massively; but it's also very worrying how few players we'll have left and how many we'll need in. With a very tight wage budget, what the heck are we going to be bringing in?!

If we stay up this season, next season could be bloody painful. If we go down, next season could be bloody painful...

[Zip]

With all the players OOC this summer, that helps massively; but it's also very worrying how few players we'll have left and how many we'll need in. With a very tight wage budget, what the heck are we going to be bringing in?!

If we stay up this season, next season could be bloody painful. If we go down, next season could be bloody painful...

Next season will be hugely difficult especially if we go down as very few of our players under contract will want to stay.

If we survive we can keep hold of Meite and Joao which gives us something upfront. TMac would stay and possibly give Rino a new deal. Beyond that we might have Ejaria, Tetek and Southwood. That’s at best. We need Moore and Puscas off the books. With Swift’s wages gone we will have few big earners left.

It will be another very difficult season.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We will be operating on one of the lowest budgets in the league next season and likely not be able to spend much (if anything) on players at all. I suspect we will struggle to tie down many players to new deals, wages depending. I'm not even that convinced, just looking at the numbers, that Rino, Holmes etc will want to stay. I can imagine we end up offering a low Championship wage, potentially less than they are earning now.

Our wage bill for next season will be just over £307k a week. Having a squad of 25 players will mean the average wage for each player will be slightly less than £12.5k, a pretty average Championship wage. Rino and Holmes could accept that, depending on what they earn now. The likes of Hoilett, Halilovic, Dann etc that we signed in the summer will probably accept less than that as well given what they earn now.

I do think it's doable, providing that Moore and Puscas' wages are completely off the wage bill, Swift obviously leaving and I'd probably say we might even have to either a) reluctantly sell one of Joao or Meite or b) be a bit more hopeful we can offload Ejaria's wages.

[South Coast Royal]

With money being tight next season I think we need a savvy manager who knows his way around the lower reaches of English football (where the better players are not that well paid and would jump at the chance of Championship football) and the loan market for Premier League youngsters and/or connections at the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.

Whatever we do, we need to hang on to goalscorers - strikers are the most expensive in football and fortunately Joao and Meite are tied to us for a bit longer.

I wonder if we have a sell-on clause for Olise (somehow I doubt it as we were desperate for money when he left) as the bigger clubs seem to have woken up to his ability even if City and Chelsea weren't prepared to wait for him to develop previously.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I certainly wouldn't bank on us having sell on clauses on any players, the only one I can think of in recent memory was Jack Stacey to Bournemouth where we pocketed a handy £1.2m roughly, but all the rest have been released, in terms of youngsters. I don't think Palace would have had a reason to put any sell on clause onto Olise, as we were obliged to accept £8m anyway, so I can't see why they'd put one on, but if they did then it only benefits us.

[Snowflake Royal]

In many ways, it's probably harder to build a competitive squad for the Championship next season than it is for L1.

Moore and Puscas have less incentive to leave and if we're stuck with them, plus Joao, Meite and Ejaria, that's roughly ~£6m of our £16m budget. Leaving us with £10m to split amongst about about 20 players, which is an average was of under £10k a week. Yes, Moore and Puscas staying is a bit of a worst case and we could probably sell at least one, if not more, of the other three to free up wages and bring in some money, but we have to replace them too. Which means we'd have maybe 2 to 5 decent Championship proven players.

On the other hand, if we go down, Moore and Puscas are likely to be much more cooperative in leaving. And we don't have to replace Joao / Meite / Ejaria, when selling them, with players anywhere near the same quality or cost. Yes, our wage budget probably goes down by ~£6m, but that £10m left suddenly stretches a lot further in getting L1 level talent.

Promotion would almost certainly be off the cards for a while, but it's not like our prospects have much more than Championship relegation fight in them for the short term if we do survive. Personally, I've had my fill of that.

[Dirk Gently]

I certainly wouldn't bank on us having sell on clauses on any players, the only one I can think of in recent memory was Jack Stacey to Bournemouth where we pocketed a handy £1.2m roughly, but all the rest have been released, in terms of youngsters. I don't think Palace would have had a reason to put any sell on clause onto Olise, as we were obliged to accept £8m anyway, so I can't see why they'd put one on, but if they did then it only benefits us.

We no longer have Nick Hammond doing the negotiatons - he was th king of the sell-on clause, as well as being an expert at getting ridiculous sums for non-perfroming players.