The fourth survey by accountants and business advisers PKF (UK) LLP, entitled 'Controlling Club Performance – the annual survey of football club finance directors 2005', says English and Scottish clubs must look to control costs through reassessing player wages and considering alternative revenue streams,
It says the increasing reliance on spiraling ticket prices can no longer be sustained.
This year only 21 per cent of clubs felt under more pressure from their bank (compared to 33 per cent last year and 38 per cent in 2003).
Ticket revenues have soared and contributed the biggest revenue growth at 48 per cent of clubs in the last year. Television provided the biggest increase in revenue at just 14 per cent of clubs. Merchandising and sponsorship revenue each provided the biggest revenue growth at seven per cent of clubs.
The survey says there has been progress in making player salaries more related to performance on the field. However, 55 per cent of the FDs surveyed rated player wage inflexibility as one of their major concerns in the next year – an increase on last year’s 42 per cent.
Stuart Barnsdall, partner in PKF’s football services group, said: “The burden of high player salaries and clubs’ continued reliance on competition-based revenue has shown the need for clubs to get the most value from the players they pay. It can’t be long before clubs start to press for compensation from the football associations to mitigate this substantial and rising cost.”
More than three quarters of clubs (79 per cent) said the Government should put more funding back into football at grassroots level, to acknowledge the substantial contribution that the football sector makes to UK tax revenues.
