The balancing of debt and day-to-day expenditure is one that is faced by families, individuals and sporting organisations, a point illustrated in today’s publication of the FAI’s annual accounts for the year 2023.
The good news was that match day revenue more than doubled from €9.2 million in 2022 to €18.6 million in 2023. This was buoyed by hosting France and the Netherlands in the ill-fated Euro 2024 qualifiers and the Women’s National Team, also at the Aviva Stadium, for a popular clash with Northern Ireland after the World Cup.
24,000 season ticket sales showed their remains a strong base of support for the team, one of the key fundamentals of financial security for any sports team.
Commercial revenues were also up, from €15.6 million in 2022 to 20.8 million in 2023.
This was made up of a number of sponsorship renewals and the arrival of Castore, which significantly increased the money derived from the kit partnership.
Sky’s rolling over of the Women’s Sponsorship into additional support of the men’s team as a primary commercial partner will filter through to the numbers for 2024.
This resulted in a surplus for the year of €3.5 million, the same as in 2022, albeit on an increased turnover of €62.3 million as opposed to €54 million 12 months earlier.
The downside, though, was the continued high level of debt and the impact this continues to have.
The figure is now down to €43.2 million from €50.9 million and the paying down of debt is what many financial advisers would suggest, though it comes at a price of the Associations cash reserve now being down to €1.6 million.
Prudent financial management is generally a code for keeping a tight hold of the purse strings and a lessening of the investment needed to grow the sport in terms of facilities, programmes and other areas.
Keeping an eye on the long term is not easy in a world where the demands for immediate return grow ever louder but facing an inherited problem is the first step towards solving it and while it may not be the biggest crowd pleaser, it does appear to be the right thing to do.
“In 2023, we’ve not only increased our turnover thanks to improved match-related revenue, with fantastic crowds at our men’s UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying matches, underlined by a record season-ticket uptake, and our women’s national team World Cup preparation matches and UEFA Women’s Nations League fixtures, but also increased commercial revenue thanks to renewed and new partners for the Association which demonstrates substantial backing from our sponsors,” said Chair Tony Keohane.
“I would like to thank our loyal supporters, our sponsors and media partners for their continued support.”
“It remains a challenge for the Association to significantly reduce the legacy debt but it is a challenge the business is responding to, with another reduction in that debt in 2023. The Association has controlled our costs and balanced this with the commitment to invest in the game at all levels as we look to grow the game in line with the FAI Strategy 2022-25.”
“A strong 2023 has reinforced the steady improvement of the Association’s financial situation,” added Interim CEO Dave Courell.
“With a surplus of €3.5 million achieved for the second year in a row year, we continue to make significant strides towards our long-term financial goal of reducing our legacy debt, which will, in turn, enable us to maximise our investment into the game.”
“While making progress, we are acutely conscious that we are only part way through the journey of clearing our legacy debt.”
“We need to balance the requirement of servicing and paying down this legacy debt whilst continuing to invest in developing the game and helping it to achieve its full potential. As a not-for-profit organisation it is incumbent on us to be increasingly vigilant in our financial management, ensuring we maximise each and every euro of investment that we put back into the game.”
“We also recognise that we cannot do this on our own. We commit to working with our community (our staff, players, coaches, referees, administrators and volunteers) and our wider stakeholders (Government, Sport Ireland, FIFA, UEFA and commercial/media partners) to achieve the aims set out in our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan. If we collaborate effectively, we can ensure that football (at all levels) realises its full potential.”
The famed ‘football family’ is tough to please and is divided into many individual interest groups but the hope has to be that the current management are given leeway to make amends for the sins of the past, and put the sport on a stronger financial base than looked in any way possible a few short years ago.
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