Finance guru: Liverpool ‘eager’ to close £54m gap on Man City after ’13 new’ deals agreed
Liverpool will be “eager” to close the £54million commercial income gap between themselves and Man City.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Reds’ recently-released annual accounts.
Liverpool published their report last Friday (25 February) for the year ending 31 May 2021, revealing a small loss of £4.8m on revenues of £487m.
The League Cup champions’ commercial income meanwhile was nudged up by £200,000 on the previous financial annum to £217.6m.
The Merseysiders recorded record-breaking shirt sales and opened up three new overseas megastores in 2020-21.
Bt they trail their Premier League title rivals Man City in the commercial stakes after they recorded income of £271.7m in the same period.
Plumley explained why Liverpool were unable to come out on top despite the 13 new commercial deals they signed in 2020-21.
“We have to bring in the ownership structure here,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“Liverpool will obviously be eager to close that gap but we know a lot of those deals have links to the owners at City.
“But putting that aside, the ownership structures are still very different at both clubs.
“Liverpool might have wanted commercial income to be a little bit higher, but everyone was putting the brakes on in the pandemic.
“Sponsors weren’t wanting to overstretch themselves, so a flat line is pretty good for that year.
“They did add 13 new partners. They switched to Nike and that benefited them significantly. So you can see where the gains have been made.”
Liverpool trail City by three points at the top of the Premier League.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side have two games in hand and a superior goal difference.
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