EXCLUSIVE: The Tigers supremo opens up on the club’s financial position
Owner Acun Ilicali says he will continue to support Hull City after the latest club accounts revealed a pre-tax loss of £10.2m for the 2024/25 campaign. That loss takes the level of debt to £41.7m as the owner prepares to celebrate four years since his takeover of the club from the Allam family.
The latest accounts come on the back of financial concerns from many supporters in the summer when the EFL imposed a transfer embargo on the Tigers.
City’s revenue for last season rose by 22 per cent to £25.8m, but so did the club’s wage bill, which stood at £36.7m having climbed by a quarter on the previous year. Borrowings were at £11m for the tax year and despite £36.6m raised through player sales, the club was still losing close to £1m a month.
The final figures show the club reporting an underlying loss of £41.7m, a rise of 45 per cent, in accounts released by Companies House this week.
Naturally, such figures raise concerns amongst supporters, but Ilicali insists he is more committed than ever in funding the club.
In an admission over the escalating costs, the owner does admit the club’s wage bill needs to be reduced by around £3m over the next few months and says there will be player sales to balance the books in the coming months as we saw when Jaden Philogene and Jacob Greaves were allowed to move on.
The Tigers, who sit fourth in the Championship going into Christmas after a stellar start to the new season under Sergej Jakirovic, following a difficult summer off the pitch, where the club’s finances were brought into sharp focus.
The Tigers have been working hard in recent months to reduce their costs, but further cuts will have to be made.
“The story is like this: If you want to fight for the play-offs, you have to spend money. It’s too simple,” the City owner told Hull Live after the latest accounts were first revealed.
“We have to make some sales because we have the danger of exceeding the (Financial Fair Play) balance over three years, so we will need to make some sales before July 1. I don’t see it as a very big problem for us. I’m not talking about too many sales; some sales are enough. Our salary bill is very high.
“Sometimes, when I read social media, I’m a little surprised (about criticism) because all of us want to be in the top 10, top six, and push for the play-offs.
“Do we want it? Yes, of course. All of us agree that we want to have a good team. In this case, to have a strong team, we have to spend money.
“I think that I have spent almost £100m until now, and I feel very happy about it because we have a strong team. I want our fans to be on the same page with us that we spend this money to fight for success, and now we are in the limit zone. At the moment, we have a high wage bill.”
City eased some of the financial pressure earlier this season when the company converted loans (owed to Ilicali) into equity. One ordinary share was issued at nominal value, with a share premium of £14,614,500, to give the club an injection of cash to ease the financial burden.
Ilicali added; “The team is supported by me, and as you saw three months ago, we just put some money into the club, and we will continue to do that.
“There is no danger that the club has some loans because these loans are not with banks. These loans are to us, to me, and I love this club.
“I’m happy to spend it, but of course, we have to keep the balance, so we will reduce some spending.
“Now the tank is full of fuel, and we can go more smoothly because we have our own assets, like more than 10 players. We have Charlie Hughes, Eliot Matazo, Mohamed Belloumi, Liam Millar, Darko Gyabi, and Ryan Giles; these are all our own players, and we invested in them.”
City remain keen to add more sponsors to help with their FFP situation, having seen lucrative deals with McVitie’s and Safiport end in the past two seasons.
Discussions with potential suitors remain ongoing, and Ilicali says you can never predict what may be around the corner.
“You can never know tomorrow who will be our sponsor. We can always have good sponsors, but the club shouldn’t depend on my support all the time,” Ilicali continued.
“We have to reduce the wage bill by around three or four million, and with some sales, I think this will be enough.
“Two years ago, we had two players we could sell. Now we have many players that we can sometimes sell, and of course, run the club in the perfect way.”
City, like so many clubs in the second tier, is heavily reliant on owner funding, and Ilicali admits that a financial advisor probably wouldn’t recommend investing in a Championship club in order to make a quick fortune.
Despite needing support from Ilicali, the Turkish businessman is keen to see the club become more sustainable.
“If I were a person who calculates budgets and tries to make a profit, I would never buy this club,” he joked.
“I knew that I had to spend money, and I came here to spend money for this beautiful team and to make these beautiful people happy, so I’m very OK to spend money, as I always have been and this will continue.
“After having these good players of our own, now what we have to do is reduce spending and balance it so that less support from me is needed.”
Naturally, all clubs in the Championship have to sell to balance the books, especially those without the benefit of parachute payments.
Given where City find themselves in the league at the halfway stage, they could yet find themselves in the Premier League next season.
Fans immediately get spooked when the topic of selling players is raised, especially Tigers fans who will remember what happened when Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki were sold in the winter 2019 window and the subsequent struggle after that.
City fought off Coventry City’s firm interest in Hughes over the summer, while a deal for goalkeeper Ivor Pandur did not materialise, and given the club’s stunning start to the season, interest remains in their players, which is to be expected.
Ilicali, though, says he wants fans to remain confident in what the club will do moving forward when it comes to recruitment, despite working under transfer restrictions for the duration of the winter window.
“I want all of our fans to be confident, because, from the first minute we bought the club, we made some sales, and as you see, we brought new players, new players, new players,” he continued.
“In my first team, there were only two players who could make money: Keane Lewis-Potter and Jacob Greaves.
“Then we bought Jaden Philogene, and he was our transfer, so I can say that there were only two players in this team that could be sellable before Jaden came along. We sold these two players back then, but now, we have 12, 13 or 14 players that are valuable. Our squad’s value has increased over the past 12 months because of our recruitment, and we believe that will happen again.
“Any players that will be sold means that we will bring in high-quality replacements, as we have shown before when we’ve replaced good players with very good players.
“For example, Charlie Hughes, Liam Millar, Mohamed Belloumi and Ryan Giles are all good investments, but please don’t think we must sell too many players. No, no, it’s not like that.
“First of all, some players can come to us and say that they want to go to another team, which I always respect. They put it in one side. On the other side, we are not dying to sell many players. We will only do what is right for the health of the club. That is our priority.
“Even one or two players can be enough to help with the finances, depending on who they are. It is not like we are in danger, so we have to sell three or four stars. No, it’s not like that. I’m not talking about the best players or any specific players. We will see what will happen. We are relaxed about the situation and know what we need to do.
“The target, the focus is not on how many players we will sell, no. Only one or two player sales will be enough for us. There are already some players who want to leave, but as I say, at this stage we don’t know what will happen.
“I would say that January could see something happen. My expectation is that January can be one departure or maybe zero departures. In the summer, I think we will sell three or four players, and then bring in five or six players in depending on which league we are in, of course!
“At the moment, Sergej and the players are doing an incredible job, and our full support and belief are with the team to keep pushing.
“If we are promoted, watch me. I’m sure that the fans already know how crazy I am, but they will see the real crazy guy if we are promoted.”
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