All the financial facts

[californiahoop]

If you can be bothered to read it

http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/queens-park-rangers-do-you-believe-in.html?m=1

[KuPR]

Well that's a sobering read.

[Ginger Ninja]

Anyone provide a summary?

[Kirill]

Anyone provide a summary?

Here you go:
Everything is peachy, have faith in Uncle Tony

[klonk]

Anyone provide a summary?

basically, it's a fair, fact-based analysis of the club's financial position from someone who knows their stuff (instead of some sports journalist churning out cliche after cliche).

there's nothing particularly new (or controversial) here:

we spend way, way too much on wages,
we paid too much for underperforming players with little resale value
we gambled on staying up and lost (twice)

what is interesting, is that the author puts our financial performance into context by comparing us to other championship and premier league clubs (using factual information). no huge surprise to say that we come out of these comparisons badly, but there are glimmers of hope (we could sell players at a profit this summer for a change, the best paid players are gone/going out-of-contract soon, the club is claiming that it will look for cheaper, hungrier players in future etc).

[Rico!]

Despite relegation the wage bill was only trimmed by £2.6 million (3%) from £78 million to £75.4 million, increasing the wages to turnover ratio from 129% to an almost unimaginable 195%. In other words, QPR spent twice as much on wages as their income – and then had to fund all their other expenditure.

Incredible.

[Maidohoops]

Anyone provide a summary?

Yep. Without the £60m write off we would be £1/4 billion pounds in debt. For 3 seasons running we have incurred the highest losses of the league we have been in. To put our debt into context, Arsenal have built a stadium and are £284m in debt, The Glaziers bought Man U for £1 billion using debt assigned to the club and they are £380m in debt. The club has made £4m from player sales in the last 9 years, making a loss of £4m on player sales (Sales receipts less players book value) last year, something only 3 other clubs have managed to do.

On the bright side, we stand to make a good deal of money from a few player sales this year, and parachute payments are higher although revenue will still fall by about £40m, again a bright side being we did have the highest revenue in the Championship last year, and probably will do again although this is down to our lucrative sponsorship with Air Asia more than anything.

Biggest thing though remains our wage bill of £78m (192% of turnover), this obviously needs to come down.

In conclusion, spending has been bad, time to cut our cloth, right people in place to do this with new CEO with a footballing background and apparent "lessons leant" demonstrated by not going out and getting the next big name, high profile, super expensive manager.

[hal9thou]

Everyone should read it, a superb piece of forensic accounting.

Some of the points which had been made on here before (and largely dismissed) concern bank loans to the club itself and the fact that a successful career in business does not necessarily prepare you for the experience of running a football club.

Some quotes:

On the debt: Incredibly, the figure would have been even higher at £250 million if the shareholders had not written-off £60 million and converted £5 million into equity (the maximum permitted by FFP rules) in 2014. Just pause for a moment and consider that: a quarter of a billion debt.

Most of the debt (£158 million) is owed to the club’s owners and is non-interest bearing, comprising £115 million to Tune QPR Sdn Bhd (a company controlled by Fernandes), £33 million to Sea Dream Limited (a company owned by the Mittal family) and £10 million to Amulaya Property Limited (a company entirely owned by Tune QPR and Sea Dream). However, in the last two years, the club has also taken on £27 million of bank loans, secured on the Loftus Road Stadium, which may be a cause for concern.


Another interesting point is that Sea Dream Limited only waived £6.6 million of the £60 million debt write-off, leaving the vast majority (£53.4 million) to Tune QPR Sdn Bhd, which is nowhere near the ownership proportions of Sea Dream 30% and Tune QPR 69%. It’s pure conjecture, but it would appear that Mittal was not overly keen to pay for Fernandes’ errors.

On Uncle Tone: to date he has given the impression of being one of those successful businessmen that seem to forget the strategies that have worked so well in their day job once they enter the world of football...


I guess that is the really frustrating thing. People who saw bad calls being made at the time were not listened to or ignored. As the report says, Tony can not be accused of under funding but he made some terrible, terrible decisions and just didn't get long term. The bottom line is that by any measurable standard we are in a worse place now than when he took over. Fingers crossed, huh?

[Maidohoops]

Something that is also often overlooked is that we have had a total income over this time of around £180m so in actual fact we haven't just put £1/4 Billion against a wall but also the income we have received, so 4 years and £430m spent and not one single asset built, bought or planned and we are still in the Championship. For some context the Emirates Stadium cost £390m.

[Yousef]

Anyone provide a summary?

We're in doom and bloom

[Kirill]

...so 4 years and £430m spent and not one single asset built, bought or planned and we are still in the Championship...

One would think that under the circumstances the chairman would do the honourable thing and resign for damage limitation. But perhaps one is too naive and reliant on good business practices that have no place in the context of QPR nowadays.

[hal9thou]

One would think that under the circumstances the chairman would do the honourable thing and resign for damage limitation. But perhaps one is too naive and reliant on good business practices that have no place in the context of QPR nowadays.

I think Mittals definitely got cold feet re Tony. Even with Tone gone and absorbing that massive hit of debt, would they (Mittals) want to fly the plane solo? And if they wouldn't, who would? That's our problem. If Tony has learned, it could be a case of better the devil you know.....

[Kirill]

I think Mittals definitely got cold feet re Tony. Even with Tone gone and absorbing that massive hit of debt, would they (Mittals) want to fly the plane solo? And if they wouldn't, who would? That's our problem. If Tony has learned, it could be a case of better the devil you know.....

I said resign, not sell up. No one would pay a penny for this m o r o n's stake in the club right now.

[MattyRangers]

I said resign, not sell up. No one would pay a penny for this m o r o n's stake in the club right now.

Not done bad at life for a "mor0n" though tbf to him

[californiahoop]

An amazing read, TF is lucky to still be chairman, he has six months I believe.