Pompey announce annual loss.

Well Pompey have annouced their annual figures for 2007/08 and they show a marked improvement over the previous year.

The full statement is included below but a quick look at the figures shows that with turnover up by 75% the loss is down from 58% to 24%. The club reveal they have loans of £44million and restructure the deals.

Interestingly the sale of Mendes, Muntari, Diarra and Defoe are not included as are the purchase of Crouch, Kaboul, Belhadj and Mullins and the club will have made a profit of in the region of £25million on those deals. There is no mention of the 'sale' of the former manager.

Read the statement yourselves and make your own minds up - remember these statements are designed to show a rosy picture.

Pompey Statement from Official Site

Portsmouth Football Club have reduced losses by £6.79m for the year ending 2007/08 - from £23.45m (2006/07) to £16.66m.

The club anticipates a further substantial reduction for 2008/09 and is on course to break even by the time Fratton Park is redeveloped to accommodate 30,000 fans by the season 2011/12.

The first phase of the redevelopment will see Fratton Park`s capacity increase by 5,000 to around 25,000 for the start of the 2010/11 season.

Turnover for the year rose from just over £40m to £70m, largely due to the increased revenue from the new three-year Sky TV contract - from £25m to £49m.

In addition there were increases in retail operations, sponsorship, match revenues, hospitality and as a result of the FA Cup success. These accounted for an extra £5m on the previous year.

The club anticipates turnover remaining at the same level but then rising by up to 50 per cent when the stadium redevelopment, with the addition of extra seating and corporate hospitality boxes, is complete.

Total staff costs rose from £36.8m to £54.6m for the club`s 635 personnel, but the overall amount as a proportion of the club`s turnover fell from nearly 92 per cent to 77.6 per cent. This was despite the payment of bonuses for winning the FA Cup and qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

The club`s aim is to reduce the wage bill further to fall in line with the Premier League guidelines of just over 60 per cent of turnover.

During the 2007/08 period the club invested around £4m in new offices, a new megastore, new ticket office and media centre and upgraded facilities at Fratton Park.

The business also diversified by buying South Coast Investments, a leisurewear business that includes the stores Animal and Quiksilver and also invested in a 25 per cent share in Quadrant Media, which runs three radio stations on the south coast.

The club also introduced a financial services division to provide alternative payment methods for season tickets, which were once again frozen.

The club has since introduced a five-month interest free option through Zebra Finance and a club credit card which allows payments to be made over a 12-month period. All season ticket prices have been reduced for next season.

The 2007/08 figures do not take into account fees agreed for the sale of players such as Pedro Mendes to Glasgow Rangers and Sulley Muntari to Inter Milan in the summer of 2008, or Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid and Jermain Defoe to Spurs in January 2009.

The purchases of Peter Crouch and Younes Kaboul in the summer of 2008 and Nadir Belhadj and Hayden Mullins in January are also not included.

The club currently has loans outstanding of £44m with Standard Bank and Barclays Bank. The club is in discussion to renew banking facilities.

PUP

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