Palace By Numbers

 Summer Transfer Window Review The transfer window closed with a whimper rather than a bang. It was disappointing after a great start not to get a couple of signings through the door. Let’s start with the arrivals Cheick Doucouré The number one target. That was signed up relatively early. A combative midfielder that progresses the ball quickly. He suits the system and early days but looks a great signing. The last game against Newcastle he won 5 tackles (joint most in the match), goal-line clearance, two key passes and 79% passing accuracy.  Transfermarkt has a fee of 20 million. For my amortisation figure, I normally add 30%. Historically comparing transfermarkt to statutory accounts they are 30% lower. This could be agent fees and player bonuses which are not included in the Transfermarkt figure. This works out to be £4 million per season. That’s only 0.3k more per season than Kouyaté cost. That looks like good value. Especially as he is 22 years old. If the club play their ...

 The most common topic within football finance is the accounting of football transfers. Let's start by defining some terms as accountants love jargon; it makes us sound smart. After that, we will dig into the numbers. Amortisation; Spreading of the cost of the player over life of the contract Intangible asset; Something that cannot be touched that has value and can be traded, Players registration; This is the thing that is actually getting amortised not that actual player. Depreciation; Similar to Amortisation but with physical assets (More common than Amortisation so more people are aware of it).  P&L; Over a time period this is how the company has been performing financially. Difficult to see just from looking at cash if the month/year has been good or bad so we use the P&L to make sense of how a company is doing financially. This isn’t what is happening with the bank account and the treasury function will monitor that.  Balance sheet; A snapshot of Assets and L...

  Financial results 20-21 Palace vs Arsenal 19 May 21 Quick Summary  The club made a loss of £42.8 million before tax  Would have made a loss even if COVID didn’t happen As the club estimated it reduced income by £13 million  Wages and amortisation of 121% of turnover,  UEFA replacement of FFP wants clubs to lower that down to 70% Other costs are 17% of turnover To make a break-even the club would need to sell £52 million worth of player registrations The net book value of players registrations is down to £35 million, due to low spending in recent seasons, Net book value is the cost of transfer fees not yet hit the P&L. This cleared space on P&L for a spending spree last summer Still waiting for WBA numbers but only two teams in Premier League made a profit  Total Revenue Palace are 4th or 5th Bottom 11th on wages in the Premier League Take that with a pinch of salt as Palace are reporting on 11 months and other are reporting 12 months. P&L is n...