Breaking: Leicester City announce £19.4m loss for 23-24 and expect Psr discussions to continue
Leicester City expect continued discussions with the football authorities over profit and sustainability rules (PSR) after posting a loss of £19.4m for their Championship-winning season.
City’s accounts for the 2023/24 campaign have been published, showing the club have made a loss for a sixth straight season.
But the extent of the loss is considerably reduced compared to the previous two years, with City in the red to the tune of £92.5m in 2021/22 and £89.7m in 2022/23.
The Premier League announced in January that none of their clubs were to be charged with a breach of PSR for the three-year period ending with 2023/24, but added that City remained at risk pending the outcome of a legal case.
Last September, it was announced that Leicester had successfully appealed against a charge for the three-year period ending with 2022/23, arguing that the Premier League’s rules did not apply to them after relegation. The Premier League are appealing against that decision.
Now, City have said they expect discussions with the Premier League and EFL to continue but would not speculate on what a potential sanction may look like.
Their accounts read: “The club has been involved in certain regulatory proceedings with the Premier League and the EFL in relation to the extent to which their respective P&S (Profit and Sustainability) rules apply to the club, in the specific circumstances of the club’s relegation to the EFL Championship and its immediate promotion back to the Premier League.
“The club expects that it will continue to discuss such P&S rules with the relevant football regulators. If the club was ultimately found to have failed to achieve compliance with any P&S rules which were held to be applicable to the club in its specific circumstances then there would be a risk of sanction by the relevant governing body, but at the current time it is impracticable to estimate the likely impact of any such sanction.”
City helped their bid to meet PSR for the three-year period ending with 2023/24 by selling players and dramatically reducing their wage bill to cope with the considerable drop in revenue in the Championship.
They made £71.8m in player trading profits by selling Harvey Barnes to Newcastle, Timothy Castagne to Fulham and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea, the latter deal coming just before the June 30 Premier League accounting deadline in 2024.
James Maddison’s sale to Tottenham, which came in the same summer as Barnes and Castagne’s exits, was factored into the previous accounts as that came prior to June 30, 2023.
Partly because of relegation clauses in player contracts, City’s wage bill fell to £107.2m, down from £205.8m. The wage-to-turnover ratio remains above 100 per cent though – at 101.6 per cent, but down from 116 per cent the year before.
It is estimated that the figure would have been around 90 per cent without the promotion bonuses earned by the squad and staff at the end of last season.
Depending on the interpretation, City’s wage bill of £107.2m may be the biggest-ever in the Championship. There have been previous suggestions that Fulham, at £90m, hold the record, but Newcastle, in 2016/17, had a wage bill of £112.2m, although that was inflated by “onerous contract provisions”.
The reason City are still above 100 per cent is because their turnover reduced massively in the Championship, with falling broadcast and sponsorship payments meaning they made £105.3m, down from £177.3m the year before.
However, revenue from gate receipts remained the same, with City fans still packing out the King Power Stadium in the Championship.
In a statement, chief executive Susan Whelan said: “Operating outside of the Premier League during the 2023/24 season required some obvious adjustments compared with previous years.
“However, we achieved success on the pitch and attained promotion and the Championship title at the end of the season.
“As a club, we still have work to do to return to the consistent heights of the last 15 years and the ability to successfully adapt to different challenges is a strength we will rely on as we build for future seasons.
“Thank you to our supporters, staff and partners for the vital roles they play in the club’s development, for the loyalty they continually demonstrate and for the passion that will fuel our future progress.”
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