The football clubs across Europe continue to feel the heat due to the pandemic. Southampton FC is the latest club to suffer losses in revenues due to coronavirus. The English club showed close to £76 million losses due to coronavirus in the club’s latest financial report.
The English soccer club that is owned by St Mary’s Football Group Limited admitted that the financial performance was significantly impacted by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the club’s turnover fell from £149.6 million last year to £126.6 million pounds.
This financial strain was largely due to lack of matchday revenue as games are still played behind closed door. Moreover, the truncated 2019/20 campaign made sure that there was a dip in the broadcast revenues. The English clubs will have to pay rebate to broadcasters due to delay in matches. The broadcast revenue of Saints was reduced to £19.3 million, while the match day revenue decreased by £2.5 million pounds.
In the club statement, Managing Director Toby Steele praised the club’s staff for working deligiently during the pandemic. He said, “Despite these challenges, our Group-wide staff have shown great resilience, facilitating a smooth return to training and matches for men’s and women’s teams across all age groups, as well as the return of fans, albeit briefly, during season 2020/21.”
Adding to the woes of coronavirus restrictions, the club along with other sports had to spend additional for player safety in bio-secure environments. Southampton FC paid £1.5 million for excess sales and administrative expenses to make sure that the men’s first-team squad to train and conclude the 2019/20 season in a COVID-19 secure environment. Since there is seemingly no chance of immediate return to fans, Southampton praised the supporters that have been relentlessly supporting the club from home.