By David Woods

11th Apr, 2020 | 10:52am

'More like £60m' – Phil Hay claims Leeds will make record-breaking 19/20 announcement

Leeds United announced a huge loss of £21m in their 18/19 accounts but that came on the back of record revenues of £48.9m. 

And Phil Hay claims that things are set to get better at Leeds with new record revenues of £60m in the 19/20 season.

He said the “simple answer” as to why Leeds posted such a big loss is the wage bill, which has risen from £31 to £46m.

Talking on the latest episode of the Phil Hay Show podcast, the Athletic journalist said Leeds are a “very, very successful club” commercially.

“It amounts to a bottom-line loss over that 12-month period of £21m, up significantly from £4m in the previous financial year,” Hay said of the 18/19 accounts.

“What’s striking is that loss comes from an operating loss of £36m, which is a huge sum of money and the reason it drops to £21m as an overall figure is that Leeds raised £15m from the sale of Ronaldo Vieira to Sampdoria and also from the sale of Jack Clarke to Tottenham.

“And it comes despite turnover being almost up to £50m, it’s at £48.9m, which is a record for the Championship and far and away their best figure.

“I’ve said before, commercially Leeds are a very, very successful club, they know how to pull money in and how to maximise revenue and I gather when the results of 19/20 are published the revenue will look more like £60m rather than £48.9m.

“The simple answer is to why the losses are so great is the wage bill. The wage bill has risen from £31m in 17/18 to £46m in 18/19.”

The one figure that Leeds fans took away from the 18/19 accounts was the £21m loss.

But, when you put that into context, the overall picture is that Andrea Radrizzani is running the club very responsibly.

Revenues of almost £50m are absolutely huge for the Championship – in fact they’re a record for both the Championship and Leeds – and set to get even bigger in the 19/20 season. Those accounts run up until June 2020 and would have been even better had football in the UK not been suspended.

Leeds sold a huge number of centenary shirts this season and Elland Road has been sold out for every home game.

It gives you an idea of how big and how successful Leeds would be in the Premier League, especially if Leeds can get the capacity of Elland Road up to 50,000 – which is in the pipeline.

Football needs to change. Finances, especially in the Championship, aren’t sustainable in the long run, but Leeds and Radrizzani should be applauded for results on the pitch mixed with a prudent but ambitious approach off it.

In other Leeds United news, ‘Critical’ – Leeds chief delivers major Jean-Kevin Augustin fitness update