AFC Bournemouth Limited has filed its annual accounts for the year ending 30th June 2021.
The statements cover a year in which the club was relegated from the Premier League to the EFL Championship. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the delayed 2019/20 season meant that the club played seven games in the Premier League in the 2020/21 financial year before being relegated and playing a full season in the Championship.
The club recorded a profit before taxation of £17.0m (2020: loss of £60.1m) mainly as a result of the profits realised from player trading. The directors consider the financial position of the Company to be satisfactory at 30 June 2021.
Turnover was down by £23.7m to £71.7m (2020: £95.4m). This decrease is mainly due to the impact of Covid-19 and relegation from the Premier League. Furthermore, the vast majority of games being behind-closed-doors meant no ticket sales or hospitality income and catering receipts, lower commercial revenue and no matchday footfall through the Club’s Superstore. Losses were reduced through the successful business interruption insurance claim of £2.5m relating to the Covid pandemic, and costs relating to football player and team management wages also decreased.
Total staff costs decreased to £57.4m (2020: £107.9m) as higher paid players were sold, some contracts were not renewed and relegation clauses in contracts further lowered the wages of remaining players.
The Club recorded an operating profit of £23.6m (2020: loss of £51.9m) which included a gain in respects of player sales totalling £55.8m (2020: £22.9m).
Neill Blake, AFC Bournemouth Chief Executive, said: “During the last financial year, our focus was to continue to compete at the highest possible level of English football, initially by striving to remain in the Premier League and then through promotion out of the EFL Championship, while ensuring that the business was on a stable financial footing.
“A strategy of targeted expenditure on playing squad assets and supporting infrastructure, which management feel they can then add value to, continued to be a key component to the Club’s outlook and underpins the ambition to compete in the Premier League again.
“The directors continue to maintain close control over cash flow and continue to develop and maintain policies with the aim of ensuring the Club is run in a sustainable and successful manner. These policies are seen as vital in order to keep control over all expenditure that the Club commits to in order to go some way to mitigating the risks arising from the inherent uncertainty over league status in the following season.”
The club's accounts in full can be read here.
