Bradford City's financial loss of £299,000 'significantly exacerbated' by departure of Derek Adams

The loss of £299,000 compares with a much larger deficit of £845,000 for the previous financial year in 2020-21, with the latest loss 'significantly exacerbated' by the departure of former manager Derek Adams in February 2022 and 'unbudgeted' first-team, expenditure, the report says.

Revenue has increased by an impressive figure of 42 per cent to £7.3m from the 2020-21 figure of £5.4m, which saw the impact of Covid hit EFL clubs particularly hard.

Income from player sales, sell-on clauses and appearances was £459,000 - compared to the 20-21 figure of £490,000. £2.9m was spent on first-team management and player wages - up from £2.7m in the previous year.

A statement of behalf of the club issued by Alan K Biggin FCA, club director and chartered accountant, read: "The club has weathered the privations of the pandemic quite well and returned excellent income for a League Two club.

"We have lost the Government support we received throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, but this has been compensated by Premier League COVID support grants and EFL distribution.

"We have benefitted from the sale of two players from the academy ranks, and significantly improved commercial and ticketing operations.

"We did not, however, anticipate the early departure of first-team manager, Derek Adams. We incurred further costs both in the termination of Derek’s contract and additional costs on players and staff in our efforts to maintain the dynamic and the season’s objectives.

"The club must remain financially stable and be able to self-generate income - maybe not what some supporters wish for but, to me, it remains a cardinal principle.

"To highlight these fundamentals of a fourth-division football club: Our ticket office sales during the year are over £300k more than budget and this includes record-breaking income from ‘iFollow’ – the EFL’s official streaming service, of £180k.

"Our academy, as already referred to, has generated a surplus of over £300k."We will continue to generate income from this source and sales / transfer fees from our academy which provide a superb return, along with significant commercial and attendance growth.

"Regarding league distributions, we are of course aware that circumstances change and this ‘drip-down’ of income for the Premier League may vary depending on the Premier League’s future and its potential strategy. Nonetheless, we will act as necessity demands.

"We will look to continue with our affordable season-ticket policy, which has been ground-breaking and enormously successful.

"In such a large city as Bradford – with a low-income economy – it is a significant factor in ensuring season tickets are taken up in bulk.

"The major overhead of any club is its football wages, salaries, and on-costs. These costs have been incurred at £2.9m for the current season, compared to £2.7m previously.

"I am repeating what has been said before, but it should be noted that, in both these years, charges are within the spending constraint framework termed ‘Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP)’, which links clubs’ spending in Sky Bet League Two to 55 per cent of their turnover.

“The definition of ‘turnover’ for SCMP purposes is rather wider drafted than EFL rules and allows donations and injections of equity from owners to be included in turnover. However, at our club, this is not necessary, and we do not rely on such injections.

"The real issue remains to keep costs and, in particular, wages and salaries at a level that is within the income parameters. This is not always easy to manage, as there is always the delicately balanced interaction between the club, its supporters, and the players.

"We have managed to survive the trials and tribulations of lockdown and the year under review represents a full year’s trading.

"We did not achieve our stated aim of promotion in this year, but we would like to feel that some progress has been made and we have largely maintained our support base for which we are very grateful.”