Amortisation

If Norwich sign a player we generally know how much has been paid in transfer fees, the figures from www.soccerbase.com are a good source.

The club has to pay the transfer fee to the selling club. In the club accounts it then has to report how much it views each player's worth has declined each year. So for example Dean Ashton joining for £3,000,000 on a three year contract costs the club £1m per year. This is what is reported as 'amortisation' in the club accounts. At the end of the contract the player can just leave on a 'free' so he is viewed as potentially no worth to the business after that.

This only covers the costs for players bought in. So Jason Shackell, for example, does not have any effect on the amortisation costs of the club, as he was never bought from another club. Also once a player has finished his initial contract he stops being counted. So if Gary Doherty was signed on a three-year contract for example, he now has no effect on amortisation.

The annual amount the club are paying out for players was fairly static up to promotion being gained. It would seem there was a budget set of between £1m and £1.3m. This leapt as the club invested to try and stay in the Premiership. The higher figure in 2006 came from the club having a player costing £3m on the books the whole year. This being Ashton and then Earnshaw. The figures will continue to drop as Earnshaw has gone. The 2007 financial statement says the club paid out £2.2m to acquire Cureton, Strihavka, Marshall and Russell.

If a player is sold when he has no worth on the books the club see this as pure profit. So Rob Green for example hit the books as a £2m profit.