English Premier League club, Southampton Football Club, has reported a net loss of £76.1million for the fiscal year of 2019/20 ending in June 2020, due to the significant impact of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.

READ: This is why Dangote may drop plans to buy Arsenal FC

Key highlights of its FY 2019/20

• Southampton FC incorporated by St Mary’s Football Group Ltd, posted a decrease in the overall revenue down to £126.6m which represents a nosedive of £23m compared to £149.6 reported in the fiscal year of 2018/19, with the net loss before tax up from £41m.
• As a consequence of the English Premier League ending before 30 June 2020, broadcasting revenue fell to £93.5m compared to £112.8m in 2019 – a drop of £19.3m, despite the Saints finishing 11th in the 2019/20 Premier League season (five places higher than the previous season).
• With the suspension of the league in March 2020, until Project Restart, which led to matches played behind closed doors, matchday revenue fell to £14.5m with a £2.5m drop compared to £17.0m in 2019.
• Project restart also coated them an additional £1.5m of net additional costs of sales and administrative expenses in order to enable the men’s first-team squad to train and conclude the 2019/20 season in a COVID-19 secure environment.
• The Saints reported that the total 2019/20 revenue foregone as a highlight of the significant impact of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic over the financial year was £10.3m, with a further £20.9m revenue deferred into the year ended 30 June 2021.
• However, the club said revenue would have shown up a £8.2m (5.5%) increase up to £157.8m for the 2019/20 fiscal year, had it not been lost or deferred due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
• The transfer business was significantly impacted as the Summer 2020 transfer window did not open until July 2020, after the financial year ended.  The sales of Charlie Austin and Gallagher in the Summer 2019 window helped see a profit of £13.9m compared to £20.9m made in 2019.

READ: Manchester United: A football club or a business

What the Southampton FC MD is saying

Southampton Managing Director, Toby Steele, said:

• “As with many companies and industries, the group is in the midst of a challenging financial environment due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is reflected in the financial results for 2019/20 and necessitated the group to restructure its debt facility during June 2020. Despite these challenges, our group-wide staff have shown great resilience, facilitating a smooth return to training and matches for men’s and women’s teams across all age groups, as well as the return of fans, albeit briefly, during season 2020/21.
• “We also have great pride in the work of the Saints Foundation, in particular the collaboration with group staff in the ‘Saints as One’ initiative during the early stages of the pandemic. The ongoing support of our fans, many of whom purchased a 2020/21 season ticket at a time when the return of football was unknown, is greatly appreciated and it is our hope to get fans back where they belong, supporting all our teams in person, in greater numbers as soon as possible.”

READ: Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour spends £760k on old FA Cup Trophy

Former President of FIFA, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, was reportedly rushed to the hospital in Switzerland over a serious situation, but not life-threatening.

This isn’t the first time Blatter has been hospitalised, with the Swiss suffering health problems in November 2015 and July 2016.

READ: Ethiopia-Tigray Crisis: Olusegun Obasanjo flies to Ethiopia for mediation

The daughter of the 84-year-old, Corinne Blatter, confirmed the reports stating, “My father is in hospital. He’s getting better every day. But he needs time and rest.”

In her statement, Corinne asked for privacy on behalf of her family.

READ: Apple Watch holds highest market share, as customers ditch Swiss Watch 

What you should know:

• Blatter served as the FIFA president for 17 years, from 1998-2015.
• He is currently serving a six-year ban. He was banned by FIFA’s ethics committee in 2015 from football for eight years where he was found guilty of a series of breaches including a conflict of interest and dereliction of duty over a 2million Swiss francs (£1.35m) “disloyal payment”.
• A FIFA appeals committee upheld the suspension but reduced it from eight years to six.
• The Swiss currently under criminal investigation over an alleged undue payment to the former UEFA president Michel Platini. Both Platini and Blatter have continued to maintain they did nothing wrong.

Arsenal, a top football team in England, recently applied for a short-term loan valued at about £120 million, in closing the gap of incurred revenue losses caused by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

What you should know

Arsenal met the requirement set by the Bank of England to qualify for the United kingdom government’s COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility, created in providing short-tenor loans at fair rates to businesses that contribute remarkably to the British economy.

• The short term loan was taken by Arsenal in maintaining the club’s positive cash flow, so as to be able to pay its footballers and other staff members their wages.
• Arsenal, like many other leading football clubs in Europe, has witnessed large revenue losses because of the restriction of human mobility, in order to curb COVID-19.

Arsenal issued a statement as regards the short term loan, giving more details on why it decided to go through that route;

“As we continue to work through the implications of the global pandemic on our finances, we can confirm today that the club has met the criteria set by the Bank of England for the Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).

“As a result, we are taking a short-term £120 million loans through this facility to partially assist in managing the impacts of the revenue losses attributable to the pandemic. This is a similar approach to that taken by a wide variety of major organizations across many industries, including sport and is repayable in May 2021.

“The CCFF is designed to provide short-term finance at commercial rates during the pandemic to companies that have strong investment ratings and which make significant contributions to the British economy.

It’s important to note that Arsenal’s city rival, Tottenham Hotspur borrowed £175 million from the Bank of England, in 2020 in order to cover losses caused by the COVID-19 virus onslaught