Arsenal report pre-tax £36.6m profit – but wage bill rises to £143m
• Chief executive Ivan Gazidis says club is 'strongly placed'
• Says club will comply with Uefa's financial fair play rules
Press Association & Guardian UK
- Thursday 27 September 2012
Arsenal have reported a pre-tax £36.6m profit. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian.
Ivan Gazidis maintains Arsenal's latest set of financial results show the club "can and will forge our own path to success" after they posted another healthy pre-tax profit.
The Arsenal chief executive revealed a group profit before tax of £36.6m for the year ending 31 May 2012, up from the equivalent 2011 figures of £14.8m. They could not, though, escape an increase in wages from £124m in 2011 to £143m, which represented 60.9% of the club's football revenues.
The parent holding company's overall turnover was £243m, down from £255m mainly because of reduced property sales, with a rise in revenues to £235.3m from £225.4m.
"Cash and bank balances" stood at £153.6m, slightly down from a year ago, with net debt stable at £98.9m, most of which is tied in with the long-term mortgage following the club's move to the Emirates Stadium.
Gazidis feels this all puts Arsenal in good stead to fulfil Uefa's financial fair play guidelines for clubs to live within their means.
He said in a statement: "Clubs, fans and other stakeholders in the game are demanding a more rational financial approach and this reinforces our conviction that our club is strongly placed to succeed over the long term.
"We have qualified for the Champions League for the 15th season in a row whilst off the pitch we have a business strategy and infrastructure that is helping us to grow our revenues.
"This revenue growth will provide sustainable funds for future investment in the team whilst keeping within the Uefa Financial Fair Play requirements. We can and will forge our own path to success."
Arsenal's latest results incorporate the sales of Cesc Fábregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City last summer, which helped make a profit from player trading of £26m.
The Gunners will have been further boosted in the next set of figures by the £24m sale of their former captain Robin van Persie to Manchester United and Alex Song's £13m move to Barcelona – although that will be set against the summer signings of Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud, who scored his first Arsenal goal in Wednesday night's Capital One Cup win over Coventry.
There is also around £26m of further property sales from the Queensland Road development to take into account in future figures.