Leeds United well placed to deal with possible Premier League relegation after accounts released – Phil Hay
Leeds United are well placed to deal with the possibility of relegation from the Premier League after the release of the club’s accounts, according to Phil Hay.
The Whites’ accounts revealed that the club had recorded a £189million turnover during the 2021/22 season, an £18million increase on the previous accounting period. [Companies House]
The club also reported an operating loss of £34million, with the annual wage bill rising from £108million to £121million, with big-money players such as Dan James, Jack Harrison and Junior Firpo all signing at Elland Road during this time.
Despite this loss, The Athletic’s Hay has shared that the club are well-positioned if Javi Gracia’s team were to be relegated to the Championship, with stacks of money coming into the club during this recorded financial period.
“The fact is, Leeds have been trying to learn from hard moments for longer than is healthy now,” he wrote.
“They are firmly in the cycle of Premier League life, underlined by the release of their latest financial accounts on the morning of Easter Sunday, but making a meal of retaining it.
“Their turnover is not far off £200million a year, their operating loss in 2021-22 was £34million and they have the hallmarks of a typical club in this division: stacks of money coming in, even more going out, and all well and good so long as you don’t go down and can raise money via transfers, shareholders or both.
“Those accounts claimed Leeds were well-placed to ride temporary ejection to the EFL — ‘without altering its long-term trajectory,’ as the strategic report put it — but nobody sensible wants to put that theory to the test. Gracia, after all, was hired to keep them up.”
Stable
Although relegation to the Championship can rock a club’s finances drastically, it seems Leeds United are in the best possible position to deal with it.
Obviously, the club’s hierarchy won’t want to imagine the long-term financial ramifications if they were to remain out of the top flight for several years, but it seems they have some very standard finances compared to the Premier League’s average.
Over the years, football fans have seen some historic clubs struggle to deal with relegation to the Championship, with the likes of Sunderland, Bolton and Portsmouth all facing further relegations into the doldrums of League One and League Two.
Hopefully, Gracia’s side will be able to avoid this potential issue by delivering the goods on the pitch and drawing away from the relegation zone over the coming weeks, but if the 5-1 defeat to Crystal Palace was anything to go by, fans could be in for a rocky ride along the way.
In other Leeds United news, the decision has been made for the club to splash the cash this summer.