EPL side Aston Villa’s "season of doom and gloom continues" after it emerged the club’s parent company, Reform Acquisitions Ltd., made a £27.3M loss for the year ending May 31, according to Stuart James of the London GUARDIAN. The figures "paint a bleak picture of a club almost certain to be relegated from the Premier League and do not include transfers last summer," when Villa received £40.5M ($57M) for Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph but spent in excess of £50M ($71.4M) on new signings.
Randy Lerner bought Aston Villa in '06 "and has been trying to sell the club for a number of years." In the previous year, '13-14, Reform Acquisitions, Lerner’s U.K.-based holding company which owns Villa, recorded losses of £3.9M, down significantly from £52M "and the impression was that the club had stabilised." The latest financial report, which takes in the '14-15 season, shows "things have regressed on and off the pitch, and the fear for many of the club’s supporters will be there could be even darker times ahead."
Turnover has gone down, from £116.9M to £115.7M, in the 12 months to May '15 and the wage bill has increased substantially from £69M to £83.7M -- "a figure that includes all staff but will be swelled by the amount paid to players" (GUARDIAN, 3/10). EXPRESS's Joe Short wrote Villa's accounts "also show commercial revenue dipped" from £22M to £19.4M.
The club "took a huge hit, however, in staff wages," which increased by £14.4M to £83.7M per year.
Included in that rise is a reported £3.3M "mystery payment," known as an "exceptional item."
It is a one-off outlay and no further information was given in the annual report other than "net termination and onerous contract costs." Meanwhile, Villa looks "set to offload a number of players" when it inevitably goes down to the Championship.
Jordan Ayew, Adama Traore and Idrissa Gueye "are all tipped to leave this summer, while Jordan Veretout has been linked with a move to AC Milan" (EXPRESS, 3/10). In Birmingham, Tamlyn Jones wrote the annual accounts also confirmed the club was still up for sale but "no active discussions were taking place" at the time the report was produced. Annual accounts show the most remunerated director during the '14-15 financial year -- most likely CEO Tom Fox -- received a salary package of £1.25M. This "was in stark contrast to the previous financial year" when the highest-paid director received £265,792.
Paul Faulkner was CEO for the '13-14 year but left the club in summer '14 to be replaced by Fox (BIRMINGHAM MAIL, 3/10).
