West Ham are not alone in turning to banks in plugging the financial black hole left by the pandemic.
Leciester City increased its bank loan with Australian bank Macquarie. The finance facility is now secured against Premier League payments City will receive up to January 2023, and supersedes a loan that was updated last August, which was based around payments City would receive up to January 2022.
Earlier this month Arsenal took out a £120 million loan from the Bank of England to help ease cashflow issues brought on by the coronavirus.
The loan has been provided by the bank’s covid corporate financing facility (CCCF) and must be repaid by May, along with an unspecified amount of interest.
Spurs also took advantage of the scheme last summer, borrowing £175m from the Bank of England while the Football Association also used it to borrow the same amount in December last year.
Last year documents released at Companies House yesterday show that West Ham borrowed money from Barclays bank against next season’s TV money
The registration of a charge on the 9th November 202o revealed the club have borrowed money secured against Premier League central broadcast funds for the 2021/2022 season defined as the basic award fund and central funds due to be received in July and August next year.
The latest revelation comes after another charge on 27th October for Barclays bank thought to be personally guaranteed by the owners and worth up to £25m.
In August the Hammers completed a rights issue with existing shareholders injecting £30m of cash into the club.
At the beginning of August, they borrowed again from Media Rights and Funding against training grounds and the stadium and shop leases. In previous years they have borrowed up to £40m from the same lender in a revolving credit facility.