Dirk GentlypapereyesY21_Royal :shock: a football club making profit, surely not!!
Presumably this doesn't take into account Mr Mad's loan
Surely a club shouldn't make any money and all profit should be returned to the club, whether it be in playing staff, stadium expansion ...
You've put your finger on exactly where football went wrong - and one of the biggest scandals in the game - sadly one that hardly anyone knows about.....
When the FA was set up, as well as gate sharing, they instituted Rule 34, which was the rule which stopped money being taken out of football clubs. Amongst other things, these measures were designed to stop people using the game for excessive personal gain, and to ensure competitiveness between clubs.
In 1983, when Tottenham wanted to float as a plc, they went to the FA and asked for Rule 34 to be dropped. And - amazingly - it was, very quietly and without any objections - and without anyone really noticing or understanding what this would lead to.
So Tottenham became a plc, and lots of other clubs jumped onto the bandwagon and floated - and twenty years later the journalist David Conn discovered the machinations behind getting this rule dropped. (*)
Then the PL was setup and gate sharing also went, and all the good work done in the 1860 which had for over 120 years kept the game fair and competitive was finally swept away to give us the commercialised mess we have today.
(*) Anyone interested in this and the financial governance of football absolutely must read David's master-work - "The Beautiful Game? : Searching the Soul of Football" (2005) ISBN 0224064363
Interesting. Wasn't aware of that. But isn't the basic problem the fact that a football club was allowed to float as a plc in the first place? Once that happens then Rule 34 becomes untenable. One concept of a plc is that it can raise money from public investors who are looking for a return on their investment, ie money is taken out of the organisation.