The Premier League is "set to announce a record loss after new accounting rules and the declining value of sterling forced it to declare the cost of protecting itself from the currency risk attached to its lucrative TV contracts," according to Ahmed, Blitz & Stafford of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The organization behind the top tier of English football will reveal a pre-tax loss of £312M when it releases annual results. Next week, Companies House will publish the Premier League's filing for the financial year ending July 31, 2016, which covers the '15-16 season. For many years, the TV contracts that "fuelled the league's boom" have been paid in sterling, dollars and euros, "with the company paying the league clubs in sterling and using derivatives to manage the exchange rate risk." On the last day of the Premier League's financial year, July 31, the pound stood at $1.32, a 12% decline since the EU referendum. The Premier League said that turned what would have been a gain of £638,000 under the old standards into a "paper loss" of £250M. The "sharp fall" in the pound has already led to clubs facing higher bills to acquire foreign players. In the weeks after the vote, Sheridans sports lawyer Daniel Geey said, "If there is a euro amount to a player's buyout clause, that amount has become more expensive and has potentially scuppered deals" (FT, 4/14).
