A lot of Leeds United fans have responded to Phil Hay’s tweet as he confirmed that the Whites made an operating loss of £36m and have made an annual loss of £21m for the 2018/19 season.
Hay relayed the news that was also shared by football finance specialist Kieran Maguire, and it has triggered a response from these Leeds fans.
A couple of fans even mentioned a potential takeover. Interestingly, Andrea Radrizzani has stated that there is a desire to work with PSG president and QSI chairman Nasser al-Khelaifi, so perhaps there could be some movement in the future. And, it seems as if those two fans are calling for investment after seeing the club’s accounts.
Leeds United's 2018-19 accounts are out this morning. Will publish a detailed piece on these later but the headline figures are an operating loss of £36m and an annual loss of £21m. #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) April 8, 2020
Shows why we have to sacrifice a top player sale every year whilst we are in this league. Figures are no worse than the majority of top championship clubs but is certainly a reality to check to all those who think we should just throw all the money at promotion like Wolves did
— Carl Murphy (@CarlM1979) April 8, 2020
Ffp is a joke the fact a club like us. Who don’t spend big, have big gates, always televised are struggling to stay within the profit and loss just shows how unrealistic it really is.
— Josh ?? (@superleedsmacca) April 8, 2020
Takeover incoming…..
— Jamie Sealy (@jamiesealy1988) April 8, 2020
Means we need investment looking at those figures
— Andy Firth (@AndrewFirth21) April 8, 2020
Ouch ?
— Josh Gardner ? (@MediaJoshG) April 8, 2020
Takeover pending…
— Lee Cox (@LeeCox1510) April 8, 2020
This explains why we didn’t spend money in January, and shuts those fans up who are always moaning about transfers.
— AdamPB (@ads_pb) April 8, 2020
What do we think?
With figures like these, Leeds are not in danger of breaking Financial Fair Play rules as to do that, they need to make a loss of more than £39m every three years.
Do these new figures worry you?
Yes, we need to go up
No, we will be fine
However, looking at this, we now understand why Andrea Radrizzani is reportedly so desperate to get investment in the club, and this could be why he talked about potential investors back in October.
This could also be one of the reasons why the Whites’ players, coaching staff, and senior management recently took a voluntary pay cut amid current uncertain times.
It will be interesting to see what other measures Leeds take to ease the financial burden.