FA's move to Wembley costs £17m
Thu 16th Sep 2010 | Money & Finance
Accounts released today are expected to show the true cost of the Football Association's move from Soho Square to Wembley
The accounts will show the move cost the organisation £17m, a switch which was supposed to mark a new age of austerity.
It’s not all been bad news as the accounts also reveal a £3million overall loss in 2009 - better than the £12million loss in 2008. However, the collapse of Setanta and the move to Wembley has left the organization with a £60 million shortfall to fill.
FA general secretary Alex Horne said: "2009 was a difficult year for the FA Group as it was for the UK economy as a whole.
"The headline was the loss of our domestic broadcast partner, Setanta, as well as one of our overseas broadcasting partners, Gateway.
"We also struggled to find a replacement tenant for our former offices in Soho Square having moved to Wembley in August 2009 and made a significant provision for that situation.
"But we have persevered and we made new broadcast deals with ITV, ESPN and Supersport and have now exited the Soho Square lease."
The full extent of the FA’s financial burden are laid bare in the accounts and shows an increase in its staff wage bill from £37.6m to £42.6m,
Most significant of all is the cost of refinancing the loans taken out to fund the construction of the £757m national stadium. The 2009 figures show the FA made total payments of more than £30m to its Wembley National Stadium Limited subsidiary.
Horne, said that the FA had budgeted to continue to subsidise Wembley to the tune of £20m per annum in 2010 and 2011 and £12m a year in 2012 and 2013.
But according to the 2009 accounts, it still owes £309m to the bank under the terms of a refinancing agreement signed in 2008 and £62.4m to the FA.
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