The Club remains committed to investing in its strategy

Annual accounts published by Aberdeen Football Club for the year ended 30 June 2021 reveal that the past 12 months have been one of the toughest financial periods faced by the Club.

The profound impact of the pandemic prevented fans from attending matches, left corporate hospitality lounges lying dormant and placed a significant additional burden of Covid‐19 related costs on the Club.

The accounts show a decrease in turnover of £3.26m from £14.33m to £11.07m with an operating loss of £5.19m compared to £2.92m the previous year.

Wages reduced from £9.77m to £9.36m during the period. However, due to the decrease in turnover, the wages‐to‐turnover ratio increased from 68% to 85%.

A combination of player sales, Business Interruption insurance, fans buying more season tickets than anticipated, staff taking a temporary cut in pay, an injection of new cash from investors, and an interest‐free loan from the Scottish Government, allowed the Club to avoid making any redundancies or major permanent cuts in expenditure.

AFC Chairman, Dave Cormack, said: “The overarching challenge for the Club has been the coronavirus pandemic. When we compiled last year’s annual report, we still held out hope that we might see the return of fans to football matches and the restarting of matchday hospitality during the 2020/21 season, both of which are key income streams, but neither of these materialised.”

The Club entered the 2020/21 season uncertain as to when fans would be allowed to return to matches.

“We had optimistically assumed that we might get a return to some degree of normality from the start of 2021,” said Cormack. “But, other than one trial match which 300 fans were allowed to attend, we had to wait until the start of the current season before fans were allowed back in a limited capacity.

“The exclusion of fans not only impacted on the atmosphere at matches but also decimated the Club’s mainstream commercial revenues of match day gate receipts, hospitality, advertising, sponsorship, and retail sales.”

“Supporters, sponsors, clients, staff, management and the board have all contributed to the Club getting through the pandemic and navigating our way through a projected £10 million shortfall.”

Everyone at the Club is extremely grateful to all its loyal fans who purchased season tickets and AberDNA memberships despite all the uncertainty about a return to matches and to commercial partners, sponsors and corporates who have continued to support the Club throughout this period.

“We fully appreciate that many fans and families were facing their own challenges, so it was particularly heartening to see this contribution retained,” added Cormack.

Despite these unprecedented challenges, the Club remained committed to investing in its strategy. This includes investing in its core football operations, its Youth Academy and Cormack Park training facilities, along with new initiatives to increase turnover; being at the heart of the community with its charity partner, Aberdeen FC Community Trust; positively influencing the Scottish game and progressing plans to build a new stadium.

During the past year, the Club appointed a new management team of Stephen Glass and Allan Russell and took the opportunity to restructure the football operation by promoting Steven Gunn to the role of Director of Football from his previous position as Director of Football Operations.

Cormack said: “Our long‐term management team of Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty left the Club in March 2021. Having served the Club admirably for almost eight years, including victory in the 2014 League Cup final, featuring in a number of cup semi‐finals and finals and regularly finishing in the top four of the league. They left with our best wishes for the future.

“In his new position, Steven Gunn is responsible for all the Club’s football business, including the youth academy, professional men’s teams, and our women’s team. Furthermore, the new management team has been tasked with realising the Club’s vision of playing attacking and entertaining football, including giving academy players their chance to develop and play in the first team.”

“Young players are critical to the Club’s success and it has been particularly encouraging to see academy graduates, such as Calvin Ramsay and Jack MacKenzie, get the opportunity to prove themselves in the first team in recent months.”

The Chairman reiterated the Club’s aspiration of reaching 15,000 Season Ticket Members.

He said: “Growing our supporter base is vital to the on‐going sustainability of our Club. This is why we are focused on fan engagement, improving the match day experience and nurturing the next generation of fans through the AberDNA Junior programme.”

Since March 2020, more than 8,000 children in the city and shire have joined the free under 12 membership initiative.

“These young members, if nurtured in the right way, will become lifelong fans,” explained Cormack. “It might take a generation, but it’s critical that we think long‐term to grow our supporter base. The next phase of engaging the younger generation of fans will focus on teens through our secondary school and youth club initiatives.”

Please click here to view the 2021 Aberdeen Football Club Annual Report