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Arsenal have announced a record post-tax loss of £107.3m ($A199m) for the year ended May 31, 2021.
The club blamed the impact of COVID-19, which meant they played behind closed doors for much of that period, though they were also unsuccessful on the pitch.
The club lost $A93m the previous year, which was also affected by the pandemic.
As much as $A158m of that was put down to the adverse effect of COVID as the club played just two games in front of a crowd at the Emirates Stadium during the 2020-21 season – with coronavirus measures preventing live attendances for much of the campaign.
The club said: “Despite playing 31 home matches (23 Premier League, including four fixtures deferred consequent to the 2019/20 season suspension, six UEFA Europa League and two domestic cup ties) only two of these games were played with any fans present. As a result, matchday revenue fell by some £75m ($A139m) to £3.8m ($A7m).”
Arsenal’s first-team squad agreed to a voluntary pay-cut of 12.5 per cent during the pandemic, offsetting the club’s outlay of wages which came in at $A453m.
Redundancies – 55 in total – and restructuring during that time also saw the club incur exceptional costs of $A12.4m
The financial figures were released just hours after Arsenal announced an increase in ticket prices for the 2022/23 season.
A first stadium-wide increase in eight years will see supporters pay an extra four per cent to watch the Gunners next year.
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