Losses nearly quadruple at Leeds United

Leeds United Football Club has reported an increase in revenue last year, but nearly quadrupled pre-tax losses.

For the year to June 2016, Leeds United made £30.1m in revenues, up from £24.4m in 2015.

Losses widened from £2.3m to £8.9m for the year, prior to the sale of half the club by owner Massimo Cellino to Andrea Radrizzani in January.

The club says the main reason for this was that profits generated from player trading down by £7m to £2.8m. It has made major headway in cutting the player wage bill, which represented 71% of turnover in 2015, and last year only accounted for 50%.

Home league attendance in the season was down to 22,448, from 24,278 the year before.

Despite this, the club said that it was confident that its performance would improve in future seasons, after being hit by £3.5m in exceptional items..

It also earned more for television and broadcasting rights, which totalled £712,000 up from £270,400 the year before, and reveneues of £4.9m were made by bringing its catering operation back in-house up from £1.1m in 2015.

Investment in the first team playing squad totalled £6.3m during the year ending 30th June 2016 compared to £6.1m during the year prior.

During the year the club issued £5,000,000 shares to Eleonora Sport Limited, further strengthening the balance sheet.

Leeds is currently fourth in the EFL Championship.