Premier League promotion means Clarets’ £7.9m. loss

Before promotion, the club had a profit of £300,000, as turnover reached £19.6m, up £4.3m from the same period last year, while the £4m sale of Charlie Austin to QPR last August was also included in this year’s accounts.

Post-promotion, bonuses cost the club £7.9m, while £4m of directors’ loans were repaid. Other external loans repaid amounted to another £4m, with £1.5 of the Turf Moor bond to buy back the ground and Gawthorpe also repaid, to make it easier to service, meaning a total of £17.5m in cash went out of the business.

Some £3.5m of directors’ loans were converted into shares, increasing directors’ shareholding.

Co-chairman Mike Garlick was proud of the figures and feels the club is in excellent health: “None of the other two promoted sides (Leicester City and QPR) got close to break even - indeed, over the last five or six years not many will have, which gives us quite a unique record, of which we should be proud.

“We’ve had to move towards the model of Financial Fair Play - we have no benefactor and can’t run up losses of £20m-plus, so things have to be tighter.

“We have to cut our cloth accordingly.

“But we have cash in the bank now and have plans on other expenditure.”

Those plans include a full indoor training facility at the club’s Gawthorpe training ground.

An application for planning permission is imminent, and Garlick explained: “Work should hopefully start in May or June.”

The indoor facility would help the club in it’s initial aim to gain Category 2 status in the Elite Player Performance Plan - a youth development scheme initiated by the Premier League.

Burnley are awaiting official confirmation of their recent audit, and are anticipating an encouraging report, meaning the club would remain at Category 3, although Garlick admits: “Reaching Category 2 status is essential.”