Finance: £853m Tottenham debt leads the way in English football amid fan anger over lack of spending
Tottenham’s financial results for the year end 30 June 2022 were released to fans on the club website on Friday 10 February.
The club’s financial results were presented in an overall positive light with the top line revealing that total revenue had increased 23 per cent from the previous year to £444million.
This ranks Tottenham as the ninth richest club in Europe from the 2021-22 season in terms of revenue generated, according to a graph presented by Swiss Ramble (9 May).
Profit from operations was up 16 per cent to £112million and loss after tax was reduced by 40 per cent to £50million.
While on the surface these results seem positive, it is important to understand the context behind them. The increased revenue was down predominantly due to match receipts increasing from £1.9million to £106.1million after the return of fans following the disruption of COVID.
Revenue from UEFA prize money during the year had decreased, £23.6million to £10.2million as a result of Tottenham’s terrible European campaign, being eliminated in the group stages of the Europa Conference League.
Therefore, while match receipts and commercial revenue rose, what fans will be more interested in is the decrease in UEFA prize money as this is a reflection of the club’s on-pitch performance which is ultimately what fans care about.
Notably, a graphic presented by Swiss Ramble (14 February) reveals that Tottenham has the highest gross financial debt of all clubs in England by some distance, at £853million. This is as a result of the stadium costs.
This is clarified on the Tottenham website where it is explained that over 90 per cent of this £853million in financial borrowings is at a fixed rate with an average interest rate of 2.81 per cent.
It goes on to explain that the average maturity of the borrowings is 20.4 years, some of which stretch to 2051. It mentions that the reason for this is to ensure a limited impact on the club’s ability to invest in the playing squad.
This is something that many fans disagree with at the moment as a storm continues to brew against the current ownership of the club and chairman Daniel Levy.
The new stadium has increased matchday revenue with Tottenham bringing in £106million in this year’s results, compared to the final full season at the old White Hart Lane where matchday revenue was £71million.
The new stadium is evidently a financial upgrade for Tottenham with the revenue from matchday making up 24 per cent of the club’s overall revenue for the financial year, the highest such percentage of any team in Europe’s money league.
This increased revenue from the new stadium will only raise fans’ expectations of success on the pitch and money being reinvested into the squad.
ENIC out?
On the surface, these financial results look promising, and some fans of other clubs will be confused as to why Tottenham fans call for ENIC out, a phrase which is currently being plastered all over Spurs’ social channels.
However, these Tottenham fans argue that based on the upward trend these financial results display, the club is not spending a sufficient amount of the profit on players.
Yet from this further dive into the finances, the level of debt the club is currently in may explain why money is tight when it comes to the transfer budget, and the club would argue that they still managed to invest in the squad last summer, spending over £150million.
So, are Spurs fans pointing their finger at the wrong thing? Perhaps the money is being spent, but not wisely, and the recruitment is failing with many of their recent big-money signings not delivering.
Teams like Brighton have demonstrated that success isn’t always a direct correlation to money spent, but rather clever recruitment and scouting, which perhaps, while Tottenham find themselves with the amount of debt they do, they may need to rely on.
In other Tottenham news, it’s time for Harvey White to move on from Spurs.