Covid-19 disruptions saw Millwall post £13.1million operating loss

Millwall have published their latest accounts – with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic seeing them make an operating loss of £13.1million.

The figures are for the financial year ending June 2021 and show that the Lions’ turnover dropped by £4m from 12 months earlier to £12.4m. They had a turnover of £18.3m in 2019, before Covid-19 forced fixtures to be played behind closed doors.

Only two matches in the 2020-21 season had any fans in attendance – and then the number was capped at 2,000 for the fixtures against Derby County and QPR.

Matchday revenue dropped to £1.4m from £4.3m. In 2019 it was £5.6m.

Total staff costs increased by 10 per cent to £20.8m.

Millwall also have to find £2.5m for each of the next three seasons to pay back an £8.3m ‘support loan’ from The Football League Limited.

The loan – solely to be used to repay amounts to HM Revenue & Customs – is in the EFL’s name but is secured against future solidarity payments from the Premier League.

All Championship sides took out the ‘support loan’.

Millwall made an operating loss of £10.7m in the 2020 financial accounts compared to just £700,000 in 2019.

Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh, in the strategic report, wrote: “The decrease [in revenue] is almost wholly attributable to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had a material impact on matchday revenues.

“The almost total loss of matchday income was partially offset through streaming from iFollow broadcast during the season to fans, however this only partially mitigates the lost income, demonstrating how vital having fans back for live football is to the long-term sustainability of the sport.

“Outside of the football operations, the club utilised the government’s furlough scheme for some of its operational and commercial staff to maintain employment during the imposed restrictions and ensure loss of talent due to redundancies was kept to a minimal level.”

Millwall’s financial shortfall has been absorbed, as always, by American owner John Berylson.

The long-serving chairman has again had to plug the gap.

Talking about the challenges of last season, he told the South London Press in late March: “There are 23 home [league] games and we were averaging almost 15,000 people a game going into lockdown.

“If you do the math on what the average spend is on the tickets, and everything else would be, we’re losing that.

“That’s just lost revenue. That’s just minus – no matter how well you manage the club. And I feel we have great management. But you start off with an enormous hole.”