Kieran Maguire reveals ‘huge’ reason for £136m ‘explosion’ at Southampton
Southampton recorded sky-high broadcast income in 2020-21 simply because they played an inordinate number of matches that season.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Saints’ accounts for the year ended 31 May 2021.
The results published to Companies House on Thursday (24 March) showed that Southampton finished the season £13.7million in the red.
The club’s turnover totalled £157.2m, with broadcast income accounting for £136m of that figure.
That represents a £43m upswing on the TV cash the Saints generated in the Covid-hit 2019-20 campaign.
Maguire explained that deferred income from last season has caused broadcast income to soar so dramatically.
“There needs to be some context applied with the results here,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“You have to employ an awful lot of caution before you make a comparison between these results and the 2019-20 accounts.
“We’ve seen this across the board in the Premier League, where the figures have been hugely skewed because of factors surrounding Covid.
“Southampton’s income increased by £30m due to technical reasons. Naturally, that was because of the explosion of broadcast income.
“They only played 22 Premier League matches in 2019-20, whereas they played 41 in 2020-21 because of Project Restart.“
Southampton finished 15th in 2020-21, which was their ninth successive season in the top flight.
They are now owned by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak, who completed a £150m takeover from Gao Jisheng in January this year.
In other news, ex-Premier League referee issues “surprise” claim after Southampton news announced live on air.