Everton have announced club record losses of £139.9m as the impact of Covid-19 has hit home.
The Blues have revealed that £67.3m of that figure has come from the current pandemic to make overall losses across 2019/20 rise from a figure of £111.8m in 2018/19.
The club had been on course to post record revenue over the course of the financial year before the impact of the coronavirus, projected to be in the region of £220m.
Everton's commercial income, sponsorship, advertising and merchandise revenue has risen to £64m, which has more than doubled from the previous year.
The net debt position was reduced to £2.3m (down from £9.2m in 2018/19) because of the continued support from majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, who contributed an additional £50m within the reporting period.
The club's CEO Denise Barret-Baxendale said: “Clearly this has been a very challenging year, not least from a financial perspective with the impact of Covid-19 having a profound, wide-reaching and material impact on our figures. Prior to the pandemic, we were forecasting record revenues in excess of £200m.
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"Our final accounts show that a significant proportion of our losses have been directly attributable to the pandemic.
“However, in this period, it is encouraging that our commercial performance has improved markedly, and this will continue to be a priority moving forward.
“We have also continued our investment into both our new stadium project – which continues to progress in line with our project plan - and, importantly, in strengthening our management and playing staff through the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti and some key additions to our first-team squad.
"These strategically important projects have been enabled by our Majority Shareholder, who has further underlined his commitment with additional investment into the club, in 2019/20 and into this financial year.
“While navigating through this period of crisis, it was a priority for the Board of Directors to do everything we can to do the right thing for our fans and our community. We are incredibly grateful to our supporters for their understanding and patience throughout 2020 - as well as the support and generosity they have shown my colleagues at the Club and at Everton in the Community who have now directly supported more than 25,000 families across the Liverpool City Region through our Blue Family campaign."
