Following the publication of the financial accounts of Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, the parent company of Yeovil Town, football finance expert Kieran Maguire from the Price of Football podcast spoke with BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah on Friday evening.
You can listen to the conversation on BBC Sounds, but if you prefer to read rather than listen, here is what was said:
JK: Can you explain what the latest figures show?
KM: They have not put out the full accounts so you have to join the dots in places, but it looks as if Yeovil Town lost around about £2.8m in season 2023/24. That is high by National League standards, it is certainly very high by National League South standards. Those losses had to be funded and it looks as if Martin Hellier has lent the club a lot more money and he has effectively written off some of the debts by converting them in to shares, so the club is being subsidised. It did not invest very much in terms of signings but that is always the case at National League South level. It owes around £1.9m to Martin Hellier’s company and it owes over £1m to the English Sports Council, so the club is in a lot of debt. Debt is not great, but it does not have to be disastrous and it really comes down to how the club is going to go forwards and make those debt repayments when they fall due and make progress on the pitch as well.
JK: Is it relatively normal for a club to be reliant on an owner? Is it standard practice for clubs to be in similar situations?
KM: The average losses for a club in the National League is around £700,000. We saw Stockport County promoted (to the Football League) a couple of seasons ago which cost the owner around £4m, closer to £5m, Wrexham, despite all the global interest in that club, lost over £4m being promoted, so you are reliant on somebody who tends to be successful in football to underwrite those losses and they become a bit like the Bank of Mum and Dad. It tends to be an ongoing relationship and I appreciate there is not necessarily a great relationship between certain aspects of the fan base (at Yeovil) and the owner and that is a shame. It makes a lot of sense to get everyone around the table and engage and explain why these losses are arising and what steps are being taken to fund them.
JK: I will run through part of the statement the club put out today. “Football clubs require a high level continual investment, during the year significant monies were invested by the Hellier Group and the increase in creditors identifies much of that balance with £1m capitalised in to equity in the period, and this demonstrates the commitment to Yeovil Town. Following promotion to the National League, the difference in strength and standard of teams has been clear compared to National League South, however, the strength and ability of (manager) Mark Cooper means we have played to a standard which has remained strong and competitive and continues to provide a good grounding to return to the Football League in the future.” That sounds like they believe there is a realistic basis to make a push to return to the Football League. In a situation like this with the debt levels we are talking about, what steps do clubs traditionally have to take to address this type of situation?
KM: They have to go cap in hand to the owner, it is as simple as that. Unless there are opportunities to generate additional income at the club which we have seen at some clubs which have used 3G pitches (as their main playing surface) but then if they get up to the EFL, they have to be ripped out. It is trying to utilise the facilities of the club for more than those 23 league games and however many home cup games you get during a season. Football is a bit of a silly business, you are having to pay wages 365 days a year, but you only have 25 or 30 days of money coming in. So if you can multi-function the stadium, generate closer links with the local community to make it a desirable place to how events and so on, that helps a little bit. But football clubs are notoriously expensive to run, and the comment that it is a big step up to the National League is true. Most clubs in National League South are part-time and when you get to the National League, probably 80% of them are on a full-time basis and you have those additional costs and the cost of living which is hitting us all as well.
JK: In terms of the National League, financially how much bigger is the league as a whole? The top three clubs, Barnet, York City and Forest Green Rovers, have massive budgets, has it changed dramatically over the last 5-10 years?
KM: It has. It is now division five of the English football season, there used to be a bit of a gap between League Two and the National League, but you have seen with the clubs that have become solid players in League Two after promotion from the National League, that they have to have some form of funding behind them. I was giving a talk at Oldham Athletic a couple of months ago and they were showing me some of their numbers. You do wonder why people go in to this, there is that sense of community and identity between owners and clubs a lot of the time and they want to elevate that by being benevolent but it is the most expensive hobby I know. I stick to stamp collecting!