Accounts (year end 2022)

[fred binneys head]

Alas there are no alcohol sales in the away end when your mates from Derby come down fred. The same applies to the games against Bolton & the scum.

So we choose which clubs we serve alcohol to? Didn't realise that.

 

[Boyo]

Alas there are no alcohol sales in the away end when your mates from Derby come down fred. The same applies to the games against Bolton & the scum.

Is that health and safety as the ends will be full?

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

So we choose which clubs we serve alcohol to? Didn't realise that.

Yes..It’s up to the Ground Safety Officer ultimately. Any attendance that’s likely to be over 700 away fans, no alcohol sales.
Quite a few games this season have fallen foul of that.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Is that health and safety as the ends will be full?

More to do with overcrowded behind the SJ Rd stand I believe. People who buy beer of course can’t take it into the stand.

 

[tom_ecfc]

Could we sell cans instead of plastic bottles. Double win here, better for the environment and also cans for city could benefit?

 

[Pmc grecian]

Could we sell cans instead of plastic bottles. Double win here, better for the environment and also cans for city could benefit?

Brilliant idea utc

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Could we sell cans instead of plastic bottles. Double win here, better for the environment and also cans for city could benefit?

It’s not allowed to sell cans(or bring them in) in the ground under ground safety regs.

 

[SaintJames]

Not a serious suggestion at all, but what sort of cost would the club be looking at to re-do the big bank from scratch with relevant facilities?

Circa £7-10M as you would have to dismantle the existing stand in order to excavate underneath it

 

[tom_ecfc]

It’s not allowed to sell cans(or bring them in) in the ground under ground safety regs.

That’s such a shame!

 

[Pmc grecian]

OK, I've had a look through the accounts and would make the following observations:

1. Interesting review of the year provided in the Strategic Report, talks a lot about the importance of our youth development, the investment in the Cat & Fiddle and the changes in the board
2. Financial performance is strong because of the transfer fees and the insurance claim - day to day trading incurs a significant loss, which shows how vital the academy is to the success and sustainability of the club
3. The key risks identified are as expected
4. Not sure why the board of Directors signed the accounts off on 15 December but the Auditor didn't sign until 27 February - that's sometimes due to concerns around whether a business will continue in existence (going concern) but is very rare - the normal practice is that the accounts are signed by the Directors and then the Auditor signs within a day or two
5. Interesting information in the Directors' Report about the current financial year (to 30 June 2023) - we got "significant compensation" from Rotherham for KMT and his team, a "significant" fee for the transfer of Alfie Pond to Wolves and a further £516k insurance proceeds due to the 'loss of profits' claim arising from Covid - not sure why this second tranche of insurance income wouldn't have been included in the 2022 accounts, but there you go
6. Talking of the insurance claim, what a brilliant piece of work someone did with this (Justin Quick?) - to recover in excess of £1.5m would have taken a lot of work so well done to whoever was involved
7. The Strategic Report explains about the departure of three directors, but the Directors' Report shows there were actually four Directors who resigned in the year (P F Holding being the additional one) - not sure why this resignation wasn't covered off in the Strategic Report
8. The Audit Report is clean with no concerns raised by the Auditor, which is good news. My only concern here is why they signed the accounts two months after the Directors
9. The Profit & Loss account is strong due to the transfer fees and the insurance income, which is fine - I imagine many of the expenses were incurred when the transfer and insurance income was known i.e. it was a deliberate trading loss which helped us to get promoted - but it does starkly show that the club staying in business is 100% reliant on selling our players at the right time
10. As a result of the huge transfer fees of recent seasons, the Balance Sheet is strong, lots of cash in the bank and plenty of assets to cover our liabilities - the year to 30 June 2023 will though show the significant expenditure at the Cat & Fiddle so it will be interesting to see how much of this cash is used to fund the training ground redevelopment - the accounts disclose a commitment of £2.9m so it looks like our bank balance will be significantly reduced next year (not sure whether we got any grants for the redevelopment?)
11. The payments from the Trust to the club (approx. £100k in the year) are still being treated as donations
12. The split of turnover doesn't look right to me - according to note 5, the revenue from match tickets and season tickets was only £311k in 2021 but £1.7m in 2022 and the revenue from selling food and drink was only £6k in 2021 but £408k in 2022 - I'm sure at least some of those numbers are wrong. The overall turnover is probably right, but the split in note 5 can't be right
13. Note 7 shows our number of employees rising significantly from 130 to 212 - the non-playing staff surprised me, but maybe all the part time and volunteer staff are included here - otherwise why would we need 164 non-playing staff?
14. The highest paid director (Taggy?) received £49k remuneration in the year, an increase on the prior year when they received £13k, and total Directors' remuneration increased from £25k to £72k (that's for 9 Directors don't forget). Whether the club needs so many Directors is another question and, as I don't know what they do, I can't say, but assuming we get value from them all, paying £72k for 9 senior people leading the club doesn't seem over the top to me
15. The Audit fee is £5,000 which is very low considering the work involved, Haines Watts are doing us a favour here
16. The tax charge is around 19% of the profit when adjusted for the usual differences in fixed asset treatment - we've used up all of our previous tax losses that we had from years ago
17. We spent £112k on players registrations in the year, I can't think who that would be, but someone on here will know
18. I know there has been a focus on what Taggy takes out of the club in the past but these accounts show that it is fairly modest (unless you're of the view that Directors should be putting money in, not taking it out) - he gets a salary of £49k IF he is the highest paid director disclosed in the accounts, plus £29k rent for a property he leases to the club for loan players to live in (sounds reasonable to me) and £2,650 paid to a business in which he is a director but has no financial interest - not a huge amount and I imagine we get a lot more value from him that it costs us. These accounts don't show anything to me that would give me cause for concern about Taggy

That's it, a decent set of accounts and great to see the full accounts being filed and plenty of disclosure in there to explain what's happened. The only concerns I have are the movement in turnover as the split in the prior year doesn't seem right to me, and the fact that the Auditor signed the accounts more than two months after the Directors. I can't see what would have happened in January / February that would have given the Auditor assurance that they wouldn't have had in December, when the Board approved the accounts?

The current year's accounts will be more interesting - some sizeable income from KMT, Alfie and the second tranche of insurance income, but a huge amount of expenditure on the Cat & Fiddle.

Not forgetting transfer fee for Diang and jay