Club Update – 9th April

Further to the update published on 23rd March, the Board wish to provide an interim update on finances.

Firstly, we wish to express our sincere thanks to everyone who has donated to support the Club. Whilst we don’t want to single anyone out, we do want to say that we have been taken aback by individual contributions. We have also been given some valuable support and commitment from certain sponsors and that will be factored into our plans moving forward.

Notwithstanding this, the outlook for businesses is deteriorating daily and the Club’s ability to re-calibrate to survive this unprecedented crisis becomes even more critical. We must accept that there will be a significant shortfall in our projected income, our ability to organise events to fill any gap is curtailed and support from regular sponsors and donators will be significantly reduced. The survival of the Club is obviously paramount and this will affect how the Club operates moving forward.

With this in mind, the Board are in the process of reviewing the financial position. This hasn’t been straightforward as it is unclear when and how football might return. As soon as we have a clear view, we will share it.

At this point we can however take the opportunity to confirm that stage one of the financial review has involved agreeing with the players, management and other relevant staff that they ought to be furloughed. This exercise has now been completed.

Placing staff on furlough will hopefully allow the Club to recover 80% of its employee’s wages from the Job Retention Scheme (so far as they are available and during the period that it is maintained by the Government).

In respect of the players, they have been placed on furlough at 100% of their salaries, until June 2020, with the Club recovering 80% of the sums paid from the Scheme.

The other football staff and management have agreed that their pay will be reduced to 80% (i.e. the sums covered by the Scheme). We would take this opportunity to thank the staff for this gesture at such a critical time for the Club.

In response to the impact on the club’s income we have examined all lines of expenditure, and will continue to do so, with the aim to reduce costs as much as possible. As part of this exercise we had hoped the players would have been able to reduce their salaries by 20%, but this was not accepted. Although we are disappointed with that decision, we respect their individual circumstances and therefore we move on, in line with our previous commitments.

Our next update will be to give more detail of the Club’s current financial position and its projections for the very uncertain period ahead.