Home

Income

Income Split

Staff & Payroll

Player Trading

Amortisation

Cash

Interest Payments

Profits

Assets

Debt

Director Pay

Debt

The net debt for the club comes from adding up all the money they have borrowed, be this loans or overdraft, and then comparing it to how much cash the club has.

In 2007 the net debt reached £52m. This dropped slightly in 2008 but it is still at a very high level. Again underlying issues have been masked by the Icelandic owners pouring money into the club. They did this in the form of buying shares rather than with loans, so this does not appear in these figures. If it had been the figures would have been roughly £27m worse.

It is interesting that David Gold is suggesting a limit on the amount of money clubs can borrow. (Article here). At Birmingham they ran a very tight ship with no debts. The Birmingham fans hated their lack of ambition and what seemed to be lack of backing of their manager.

At the levels Gold is talking about West Ham would have been allowed to have debts of roughly £20m in 2008. As the graph shows West Ham have never been close to that figure. Back in 2005 the club debts were 95% of the income.