Cardiff City debt at £109m as Vincent Tan loans increase
- Published
Covid-19 meant there were no fans at the Cardiff City Stadium during the 2020-21 campaign
New financial results show Cardiff City's debt stood at £109m last year, with owner Vincent Tan having increased his loans to the Championship club.
The club's latest accounts state Cardiff recorded losses of £11.15m for the 2020-21 season.
Revenue increased £9m to £55.18m while £1.92m was shaved off the wage bill.
The Bluebirds, though, remain reliant on support from majority shareholder Tan, who lent the club a further £16m during the year.
The Malaysian businessman's loans to the club are recorded in the accounts as being at £60m, although he has since converted £6.64m into equity following a new share offer.
Other loans over the year ending June 2021 included £2m from a club director, £15.8m from a finance company associated with a club director and £6.24m relating to an interest-free EFL loan offered to support clubs during the coronavirus pandemic.
Notes in the accounts reveal further loans of £22m have been subsequently taken by the club following the end of the financial year, with loans of £3.1m repaid.
In a statement accompanying the accounts, non-executive chairman Mehmet Dalman said "pressures" caused by the pandemic on football finances had "obviously meant that we have been heavily reliant upon the continued financial support of our owner Tan Sri Dato Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun throughout this entire period".
"As a board and a club, we are extremely grateful to the continued support of our owner and without this the future of the club would look much more precarious," he added.
In the previous financial year - in what was Cardiff's first season following relegation from the Premier League - the club reported an operating loss of £23.8m before being boosted by player sales of £13.6m.
The impact of the pandemic is clear in the accounts, with Cardiff seeing gate receipts and matchday income reduced by £2.53m in a campaign played behind closed doors.
In his statement, Dalman added that it was the club's opinion that "the level of support that we as a sport have received from national and devolved governments since the start and throughout the pandemic has been extremely disappointing".
He added that professional and amateur football "has been left very much to sort out its own problems".
As disclosed in previous sets of accounts, Cardiff have maintained a contingency provision regarding the club's dispute with Nantes over a £15m fee for Emiliano Sala.
Fifa ruled in September 2019 in favour of Nantes and ordered Cardiff to pay a first instalment, although an appeal on that ruling is currently being heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.