Posted on September 29, 2009
Arsenal announced their financial results for the year ending 31 May 2009 and the news is great on all fronts.
Revenue from football activities is up £18million due to our extended runs in both the FA Cup and the Champions League. When people say qualification to the knock-out stage of the Champions League is worth £20million that is not far off the mark.
The figures include profit on sale of player registrations of £23million; this is the income we received from the sale players plus sell-on clauses for Bentley and Diarra. The net profit on transfer dealings for the year was £5.2million; this was due to the purchase of Arshavin being included in these figures. So yet again Wenger has turned a profit for the club. Unless we buy anyone in January, the profit for the year 2009/10 will be in the region of £30million on player trades.
The best news comes from the loan on Highbury Square and the sale of flats.
The club had told us that up to last November only 90 flats we sold. There were stories, notably in the Guardian that we had only sold 2 flats since then. The loan associated with the flats was due for repayment in April 2010. Arsenal was facing financial oblivion.
The club re-negotiated the loan repayment to December 2010, which is great news. But the news improved, the club had sold 208 flats as at May 2009 reducing the loan from £135million to £124million. Since then the club has gone into overdrive and has now sold 445 flats out of 655 flats, bringing in income of £172million and reducing the loan to £47million. The club has 210 flats to sell and will generate around £80million, hopefully by the December 2010. This will give Wenger a bonus of £40million.
When people say we have no money, look at the balance sheet, £99million cash at the end of May. Part of this cash mountain was early season ticket money, though not in its entirety, if you add to this the £30million net transfer from the summer activities and the balance of season tickets, the club must be sitting on a cash balance of around £130million, not bad for a club that is in financial crisis.
Now that we have seen the figures, we can rest assured that the club is now in a better financial position than we were being led to believe by many pundits. The football operation made a profit of £43million excluding transfers. The interest payments were £17million. Next time idiots on the radio say Arsenal have massive interest payments remember these figures and quote them back, even after the interest the club makes £26million profit a year.

the debt report from August last year last year:
Arsenal have debt and that is well known. Our debt is broken into two elements, the £135milion used to develop Highbury and the £232million used to build the Emirates. It is the first of these loans that is concerning the club and the directors are trying to renegotiate a loan extension as the housing market has collapsed and the club will find it difficult to pay this loan by April 2010. Our annual interest payment is £17million, whilst our profits before interest is £48million. This is adequate cover and does not in any way necessitate Wenger having to sell players to finance the interest payments.
The press have not yet looked into the United finances and the fact that Fergie has not spent the transfer fee received from Ronaldo, but if they dig a little they will find a club in deep financial quagmire.

So it mean that this year the debt is even lower … cos we sold flat from highbury ground .. plus we paid this year interest for the emirate , sold 2 player , didnt buy much and so on …

so i think the fact the club is building good financial ground will be a strenght in the near futur..

GUnner For a long and healthy life