New documents released at Companies House yesterday show that West Ham United have borrowed money from Barclays bank against next season’s TV money.
The new registration of a charge on the 9th November reveals 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 club 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.
It is not clear whether this new companies document is linked to the £25m loan at the end of October or another loan at this stage.
There’s nothing quite like owners that put their own money into a club is there . . .
It is getting increasingly common that clubs do these type of deals with banks. With players being paid for in installments, clubs (not just West Ham) will often borrow cash against the guarantees of the clubs purchasing the players to give the selling club cash to use now (rather than waiting for the installments to be paid). This obviously incurs bank fees but you would have thought this would have been taken into consideration when negotiating the price of the players.
I agree with you Adam There are very few clubs that do not operate in this way so WHUFC are no different to any other club by doing this
What business isn’t borrowing against the future at present?