THE TRICKY financial position of Bohemians football club in Phibsboro is clearly illustrated by its latest set of financial accounts.
The League of Ireland club made a loss for the year to the end of November 2011 of €471,585. This was roughly half the loss recorded in the previous year and reflected significant cost-cutting over the period.
This brought the club’s accumulated losses to just under €4.7 million.
Player wages and salaries were slashed to €338,038 from €1.2 million in 2010. Bohemians’ total income more than halved to just over €1 million last year from €2.2 million previously.
The bar profit was an anaemic €4,343 compared with almost €70,000 the previous year.
Prize money from the FAI and Uefa declined to €158,536 from €521,720 in 2010 as the club’s on-field performances dipped last season.
Bohs owed Zurich Bank €4.2 million at the end of November 2011. The bank holds a charge over a car park in the northwestern corner of Dalymount Park and the club’s accounts acknowledge that it relies on the support of the financial institution.
Dalymount is valued at €9 million in the accounts, a long way short of the reported €65 million valuation agreed with Liam Carroll’s Danninger in 2006.
At one point last year, it looked like Bohemians might disappear from the league due to its financial woes.
A club spokesman said the club is on target to “break even this year” following further cuts to its overheads.
