With the 2023/24 Premier League campaign slowly coming to a close now, and it basically being a three horse race between Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur will have hopes that in their remaining eight games, they can get their noses in front of fourth-placed Aston Villa to secure themselves a Champions League spot again for the coming season.
This season is witnessing the closest title race in years, adding extra excitement to the final stretch. From their point of view, securing a spot in the Champions League would financially come in very handy right now, as they have recently announced losses of £86.8 million from their 2022/23 accounts.
Total revenue did increase by 24% to a record high £549.6 million, but following the 2022 deficit of £50.1 million, this is four successive years of losses for the club now, and chairman Daniel Levy has confirmed that they are talking to ‘prospective investors’ to ensure that they can capitalise on the clubs’ long term potential and a uk punters website would certainly be paying attention to developments there.
Spurs have appointed advisors Rothschild & Co to hold talks and negotiations with interested parties and those talks are ongoing, but Levy did not hide the fact that the club required a ‘significant increase’ in its equity base to underscore future team investment, as well as their plans to undertake future capital projects.
Any future deal would require the support of the club’s shareholders, but fans should be reassured that the club are not currently at risk of breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Regulations.
As fans will know under Financial Fair Play, PL sides can lose up to £105 million over a three year period (£35 million a year) before sanctions come into play, and whilst the PL are making no progress with Manchester City’s significant number of charges, this season Everton, Nottingham Forest are already appealing enforced points reductions and Leicester City have now been charged and are likely to fall foul, as well.
Although their three year losses do breach the threshold at £220.7 million, a significant chunk of those losses are outside of the FFP remit and relate to Stadium and facilities costs and the annual depreciation charge of £72 million, more than brings them back into compliance.
Spurs fans will undoubtedly have their own questions when it comes to what the club actually do plan to do in the future on the back of this announcement, as back in March they also announced that season ticket prices would again rise by a further 6% for the 2024/25 campaign, with the most affordable ticket rising from £807 to £856.
They have also confirmed that from the 2025/26 season onwards, the concession for new senior season ticket holders (over 65s) is being removed.
This naturally drew a harsh response from the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust who branded the decision ‘unacceptable’ and stated that it ‘cannot be justified’.
The Trust would have been undoubtedly equally dismissive of their explanation that prices have only risen once in the last five years and that there had been a significant increase in match day costs, as whilst ticket prices may not have changed, the whole experience of their newly built White Hart Lane is predicated around fans spending money as they stay longer at the ground.
The excuse will not wash for many, not least Spurs are already one of the more expensive in the league in any event, and fans would point to the more high profile managerial disasters that they have had in recent years and the financial costs suffered there, and simply ask why should we pay more for Levy’s mistakes.
Especially if their owners are likely to boost their own return with a minority sale at the end of the day.
