Everton blame Covid for record £140 million loss

Everton have announced club record losses of £139.9 million ($186 million) after the implications of the coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted revenues.

The Toffees said the impact of Covid-19 amounted to an unforeseen loss of £67.3 million due to a cut in matchday revenue and television rebates.

However, the figures show Everton would still have made a huge loss without the disruption of the pandemic after also posting a then-record loss of £111.8 million last year.

The club spent £113 million on new players for the 2019/20 season and have splashed another £70 million in the most recent transfer window as well as recruiting Carlo Ancelotti as manager on a lucrative four-and-a-half year deal in December 2019.

The sacking of former manager Marco Silva and his coaching staff a year ago amounted to £6.6 million in compensation costs, while another £20 million was spent on preparation for a new stadium.

Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale said: “The impact of Covid-19 having a profound, wide-reaching and material impact on our figures.

“Prior to the pandemic, we were forecasting record revenues in excess of £200m. Our final accounts show that a significant proportion of our losses have been directly attributable to the pandemic.”

To help offset the losses majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri pumped in £50 million of his own money during the last financial year up to June 2020 and has already put in a further £50 million since.

That took his investment in the club since assuming control in February 2016 to £400m with plans for a further £50m to be injected by the end of this season.

Everton finished 12th in the Premier League last season and have slipped to ninth this season after a bright start to the campaign took them top in October.