Liverpool Football Club has recorded a profit for the first time in seven years, Anfield’s annual accounts reveal.
The Reds are now back in the black for the first time since their darkest days under the ill-fated Tom Hicks and George Gillett regime.
Liverpool, now under Boston based ownership team Fenway Sports Group, recorded a modest profit - just short of £1m - but it was evidence of a major turnaround in financial fortunes given the previous’ year’s balance sheet reported a loss of almost £50m.
The Reds have also returned to the Deloitte Money League’s top ten clubs in the past 12 months, now standing ninth.
The figures just lodged at Companies House and covering the 12 month period to May 31, 2014, reflect the second year of Brendan Rodgers’ time as manager - a period in which Liverpool had no European football and came within a whisker of winning the Premier League.
Neither do these latest accounts cater for the £70m plus record fee received from Barcelona for Luis Suarez.
Liverpool Chief Executve Ian Ayre said: “We continue to make good financial progress.
“Although these results are nearly 12 months old, they demonstrate that the transitional period we’ve been through over the past four years has stabilised the club and provided a platform for growth.
“Revenue has been consistently increasing from around £170m in 2009 to over £250m today and our commercial revenues continue to add strength to our overall results.”
*More from Ian Ayre on how 'this is a huge swing' for LFC
Liverpool’s net debt increased by just over £12m to over £57m but Anfield’s board are unconcerned that figure, insisting it can go up and down each year depending on where transfer deals - and due payments regarding them - stand at any one time.
During the Hicks and Gillett three and a half year tenure, Liverpool were burdened with annual interest payments of between £25m and £30m to pay for the Americans’ purchase of the club back in February 2007.
FSG - in particular Principal owner John W Henry and current Reds chairman Tom Werner - wiped out that ‘acquisition debt’ in October 2010 when they bought the club and saved it from administration after a titanic High Court battle in London.
The previous set of accounts to these latest figures showed how FSG have injected an interest free intercompany loan of £46m to help pay off debts associated with previous problems, including the failed Stanley Park Stadium Project.
FSG have since gone back to the drawing board and emerged with a scheme to redevelop Anfield, replacing first the Main Stand and then it is hoped over time, the Anfield Road End, which faces the Kop.
Work on the gigantic £100m new Main Stand, which will provide around 8,500 extra seats at Anfield, began in early December and should be complete for the start of the 2016/17 season.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE
LFC revenue increased by 19% to £255.6m
Media revenue increased by 46% to £100.9 million
Commercial revenue increased by 5% to £103.8m
Profit before tax was £0.9 million compared to a 2013 loss of £49.8m
LFC moved up three places to 9th in Deloitte’s Money League
Net debt increased by £12.2m to £57.3m but overall debt has decreased from £237m when FSG took over in 2010
LFC Accounts
