Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been discussing the financial side of Leeds United’s promotion to the Premier League.
During the 2019/20 Championship campaign, Marcelo Bielsa’s outfit was crowned champions with a ten-point advantage over second-place West Bromwich Albion (per Sky Sports).
The promotion will see the Whites return to the top flight for the 2020/21 season to end a 16-year spell outside of the Premier League (per BBC).
In the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire discussed the promotion and the benefits of the club going up in the most recent season as opposed to the upcoming one.
He said: “It [would have been] far better for them to have been promoted at the end of [the 2019/20] season.
“The reason for that is that if Leeds had had another season in the Championship, they would have been the club to have potentially lost the most in terms of matchday income.
“Their matchday [income] was over £18m in 2018/19, which is a testament to the fact that they were selling out every week.
“So, they would have potentially had to have the whole of this season without that matchday income, which is a big contributor to their overall budget.
“The manager, my understanding is [he’s] the best-paid manager in the Championship, he’s on about £3.5m a year.
“I suspect he wouldn’t have stayed, either, out of his own choice or because the club would have had to have cutbacks.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what Maguire had to say, it was evidently important that Leeds were promoted at the end of the 2019/20 season as they would have struggled financially otherwise.
While Bielsa has not yet put pen to paper on a new deal at Elland Road (per BBC), Maguire believes he would have likely left if Leeds were not promoted.
Would Marcelo Bielsa have stayed if Leeds were not promoted during the 2019/20 season?
No, he'd have left
Yes, he's loyal to us
It has been estimated that promotion to the Premier League is worth around £200m (per Leeds Live), so, it certainly seems as though that money can plug the hole of lost matchday income for the time being.