The executive pay of £1.9 million represents 21.6% of the 23/24 turnover of £8.8 million, which is totally disproportionate and unsustainable for a League 1 club.
The SMT Team are to be congratulated for managing to reduce turnover by 10% and leading us to our lowest league position for nearly 100 years. So much for their platitudes of "holding each other to account" - yeah, right.
The finances of the game have changed enormously in the last 20 years but, as Peter Varney tweeted that a while back, when he joined Charlton as MD, his salary was £48,000 at a time we were turning over more than £40 million and making a profit before player trading.
23/24 was always going to look horrible in the accounts. A poor season in the league, with 2 managerial sackings. Plus the previous season 22/23 had the income from the EFL Cup run (with the game at Old Trafford).
The senior exec team in place until recently did seem rather excessive in number for a 3rd division side, reflected in the wages.
Matchday income was down £500k - some of that would be the United game, but it’s half the turnover drop and a tenth of the increase in the operating loss, which is extraordinary.
Wages costs were up £1.85m while non football staff fell from 57 to 42. A big chunk of this is the £800,000 increase in senior management pay.
So being generous you could assume for argument’s sake that there was a circa £1m increase in the playing budget, which resulted in the lowest finish for 98 years.
Sadly, things could be worse. Imagine if our form after the Crawley game continued and NJ didn't have the support of the fans. Further misery and costs.
Well, Methven certainly has the potential for a starring role in a Netflix documentary.
If the senior managers were stressed by the numbers, they could drown their sorrows in the directors lounge after games. Dull the pain with a few Macallans each. We mug punters season ticket holders won’t mind paying for their comforts.
These are the accounts for a season in which we finished in our lowest league position in 80 years (I believe) and had three managers! Revenue was bound to be down and losses increased. Those losses are covered by the ownership and there is nothing to indicate any drop in commitment to continue to cover future losses. The owners will of course want to see progression on the pitch and we can surely all agree that we have seen that this season (after a dodgy start). If we get promoted this year then I would think that will be ahead of the expectations of the owners' long term plan. 2024/25 will still be showing an operating loss, as will 2025/26 especially if we get promoted.
One of the big criticisms of Tommy Boy was the lack of a functioning executive team, he ran it along with Raylene and his boy! The new owners put in an executive team, the selection of that team is up for debate but it was put in place and moves have been made to mitigate that selection. So no executive team under TS and one in put in place by the new owners in their first season of ownership - no shit Sherlock that executive pay increased! CM, JR, AS et al didn't set their own pay and the right people command commensurate remuneration. Hopefully the right people will be out in place but I would not expect the new CEO to be earning less CM.
Like pretty much all of this @bobmunro and you will have a better handle than most of us on what CEO pay is across the EFL. But it feels like CM was at top end of scale for League 1 (I’ve heard £300k from more than one credible source in the industry), when the only figure I can find for average L1 salary suggests c.£90k, with the average in the Championship around £295k.
I’d hope any new appointment has a more performance related remuneration structure.
So many variables, Tel. There are clubs in League 1 who have only one objective - survival, owned by local businessmen who are fans and who take a very hands on approach versus clubs who are owned by hands-off foreign money men, a set-up for a higher division (with relatively recent history of the top division) and who have promotion as the primary objective. CM would have been one of the highest paid CEOs in League 1 because we fall into the latter category, but I readily accept he was overpaid if £300k is correct - others will be much lower. The Championship may have an average of £295k but there will be/are CEOs who are close to seven figures, and others much less than the £295k - again for the same ownership set-up reasons and aspirations. Note - that £295k figure is from 2020.
I am prepared to run the club for nothing, be a teetotaller and drive my nine year old Ford Fiesta at my own expense to the work and to away games.
And pay for my own season ticket.
I would be crap at the job, but then again I would be free gratis, and not distracted by thoughts of Peterborough or Oxford United.
They say you get what you pay for, but with me they would get something for nothing.
I'd be terrified if any club considered something like this. Getting in a total amateur those losses would be huge as you'd have no idea what positive moves to make and your judgement would be hindered by your ignorance of how to do the job.
£1.9m on executive pay in League One is absurd, even if you're at the upper end of things, challenging for promotion. Particularly as someone like Ed Warrick has a brazenly portfolio career, given he lists "CFO at Charlton Athletic" fourth on his LinkedIn headline, after "Managing Partner at Applegarth Partners | INSEAD MBA | Founder at Switchee".
If we're taking remunerated C-suite at the time as Methven, Rodwell, Warrick, Andy Scott, Nathan Jones, Paul Elliott (assuming it's an exec VC spot), and perhaps Gavin Carter, then that is just shy of £250k per person on average. We can safely presume Jones is on more than that, and Elliott/Carter significantly less.
So... what's the money doing up there? I'd love to understand it and dig deeper. I can tell you for a fact that this sort of compensation is generous, to say the least, for at least one league above ours.
At least the owners appear to be taking action. That level of exec pay is not far off what executives for some teams who are perennially in Europe get.
The simple point is that CM went on record saying you could significantly reduce the operating losses of CAFC by just running the club better. That didn't happen.
They in fact went up. At the same time, we increased our Senior management spending by a lot. We reduced our playing squad. We got rid of two managers that the Senior management hired.
The simple point is that CM lied. He probably knew he was lying all along. I am grateful he found us some wealthy owners, but he should have been paid for that and then told to walk away as he is totally unqualified to run a football club.
The mismanagement of the club's finances in his period of being involved is an unequivocal failure.
He said you'd have to be stupid to not be able to reduce our operating losses. So therefore he is stupid. In his own words.
The simple point is that CM went on record saying you could significantly reduce the operating losses of CAFC by just running the club better. That didn't happen.
They in fact went up. At the same time, we increased our Senior management spending by a lot. We reduced our playing squad. We got rid of two managers that the Senior management hired.
The simple point is that CM lied. He probably knew he was lying all along. I am grateful he found us some wealthy owners, but he should have been paid for that and then told to walk away as he is totally unqualified to run a football club.
The mismanagement of the club's finances in his period of being involved is an unequivocal failure.
He said you'd have to be stupid to not be able to reduce our operating losses. So therefore he is stupid. In his own words.
I don’t think Methven found the owners. I’m told Jon Smith did. I suspect if Methven had put together the ownership then he’d be claiming the credit publicly, especially at this point. Has he?
The simple point is that CM went on record saying you could significantly reduce the operating losses of CAFC by just running the club better. That didn't happen.
They in fact went up. At the same time, we increased our Senior management spending by a lot. We reduced our playing squad. We got rid of two managers that the Senior management hired.
The simple point is that CM lied. He probably knew he was lying all along. I am grateful he found us some wealthy owners, but he should have been paid for that and then told to walk away as he is totally unqualified to run a football club.
The mismanagement of the club's finances in his period of being involved is an unequivocal failure.
He said you'd have to be stupid to not be able to reduce our operating losses. So therefore he is stupid. In his own words.
I don’t think Methven found the owners. I’m told Jon Smith did. I suspect if Methven had put together the ownership then he’d be claiming the credit publicly, especially this point. Has he?
Then my bad and even worse is that he managed to trouser some shares, a huge salary for not even doing that. You only needed to watch Sunderland Till I Die to work out what an incompetent fool he is.....
I'll be honest, it's extremely satisfying seeing bullshitters be exposed. Unfortunately it was our club that suffered, but hopefully these sort of figures and failures put off other clubs in the future dealing with these types of characters.
Horseshit from the get go, telling fans all the stuff they wanted to hear (sleeping giant, big club in league1, great stadium, etc) all to be shown for what it was always about, a way to be overpaid for doing very little. I'd argue there are users on here who could do a better job and for free.
Hopefully this is the end of these slimeball types getting their paws on us, in their luxury overpaid roles. They had no place being associated with us.
A tiger simply cannot change its stripes, and a bullshitter will always prove themselves to be just that, if you give them enough time. Good riddance.
Am I reading this correctly, it’s saying that due to the publicised cyber attack, a load of financial records were completely wiped and couldn’t be retrieved?
That’s handy.
Sounds like the sort of thing Southall would have come out with
The executive pay is ridiculous and unjustifiable, especially given they've failed to increase revenue to even try to justify their salary. Other than that though there's some positive stuff in there from a football perspective. Wage spend up 18% and player purchases outstripping player spend is at least a positive trend if it continues. You would hope that the current investors would look at our improvement on the pitch this season and tie it to that increased spend so that even if we don't go up this season they will continue to invest in the playing staff. And then think about all the money we could spend if we weren't paying so much to executives. I'll not hold my breath but it's been worse
How about inviting Kevin Maguire for an interview? Bromley addicks? Probably cost afew dollars
You've managed to merge the two presenters of the Price of Football podcast into one being...
Kieran Maguire would probably be up for it - he does a lot of stuff with fan groups. He lives in East Sussex but works in Liverpool so he's always dashing up and down the country.
Also worth signing up to the Price of Football club, which has a monthly zoom Q&A on Zoom with Maguire and Kevin Day (who can be a bit sniffy about us, being a Palace fan, but hey ho): https://priceoffootball.com/support-the-podcast/
Am I reading this correctly, it’s saying that due to the publicised cyber attack, a load of financial records were completely wiped and couldn’t be retrieved?
Convenient. Tell creditors we don't owe £70m as there's no record of it
Am I reading this correctly, it’s saying that due to the publicised cyber attack, a load of financial records were completely wiped and couldn’t be retrieved?
Convenient. Tell creditors we don't owe £70m as there's no record of it
The club doesn’t owe £70m. That’s an accumulated losses figure going back decades.
The actual number is closer to £30m at June 30th 2024, some of which is deferred income and some the ex-director loans, which are contingent.
About £10m of debt to Sandgaard’s holding company was written off when the ownership transferred, so the liabilities fell.
These accounts don’t set out post balance sheet events in the way that every previous set have, so we don’t get any insight into the current position.
How about inviting Kevin Maguire for an interview? Bromley addicks? Probably cost afew dollars
You've managed to merge the two presenters of the Price of Football podcast into one being...
Kieran Maguire would probably be up for it - he does a lot of stuff with fan groups. He lives in East Sussex but works in Liverpool so he's always dashing up and down the country.
Also worth signing up to the Price of Football club, which has a monthly zoom Q&A on Zoom with Maguire and Kevin Day (who can be a bit sniffy about us, being a Palace fan, but hey ho): https://priceoffootball.com/support-the-podcast/
Thanks I've listened to it for couple of years on and off. I know all the in-jokes about the naughty list, Russian trips and the Duchess. Gave up about a year ago as more important issue like Trump.
How about inviting Kevin Maguire for an interview? Bromley addicks? Probably cost afew dollars
You've managed to merge the two presenters of the Price of Football podcast into one being...
Kieran Maguire would probably be up for it - he does a lot of stuff with fan groups. He lives in East Sussex but works in Liverpool so he's always dashing up and down the country.
Also worth signing up to the Price of Football club, which has a monthly zoom Q&A on Zoom with Maguire and Kevin Day (who can be a bit sniffy about us, being a Palace fan, but hey ho): https://priceoffootball.com/support-the-podcast/
I'm in touch with Kieran Maguire, thanks to the Dossier work of which he's a big fan.
I think @Weegie Addick is too, but if not, and I can help, let me know.
The simple point is that CM went on record saying you could significantly reduce the operating losses of CAFC by just running the club better. That didn't happen.
They in fact went up. At the same time, we increased our Senior management spending by a lot. We reduced our playing squad. We got rid of two managers that the Senior management hired.
The simple point is that CM lied. He probably knew he was lying all along. I am grateful he found us some wealthy owners, but he should have been paid for that and then told to walk away as he is totally unqualified to run a football club.
The mismanagement of the club's finances in his period of being involved is an unequivocal failure.
He said you'd have to be stupid to not be able to reduce our operating losses. So therefore he is stupid. In his own words.
I don’t think Methven found the owners. I’m told Jon Smith did. I suspect if Methven had put together the ownership then he’d be claiming the credit publicly, especially at this point. Has he?
He said that the owners, already in a group, approached him to find a club and he (CM) suggested Charlton.
Sorry if I'm being thick but I've gone through the companies house document twice and can't see the £1.9m figure being quoted, can someone tell me where it is?
Also I feel like these accounts have a lot less information in them than previous years
Sorry if I'm being thick but I've gone through the companies house document twice and can't see the £1.9m figure being quoted, can someone tell me where it is?
Also I feel like these accounts have a lot less information in them than previous years
They do, principally post-balance sheet events, even though they were signed off on March 31st, 2025. It feels like the club may be hiding behind the cyber attack, but I am not qualified to say what they ought to be disclosing, just what they always have in the past.
I think that some of the shocks delivered by these accounts are probably bearing out what a lot of people on here have stated over the last eighteen months. I was amazed that Sandgaard was able to get as much as he did for what essentially was nothing, we also knew the Scott and Methven were here to make a tidy sum for themselves. I will probably agree with Golfie on this one, with results like this then bids for Campbell, Ramsay and a development fee for Small would probably be tempting enough to help balance the books, in Small's case we wouldn't be given a choice. In most businesses the next set of accounts are probably what matters, as I would surprised if the owners didn't know that these accounts were going to show a large deficit, you can see the start of that with the departure of executives and playing staff from January onwards. If Charlton get promoted, then the outlay will be worth it, if we don't make it then accepting any bids made will be inevitable.
Comments
The SMT Team are to be congratulated for managing to reduce turnover by 10% and leading us to our lowest league position for nearly 100 years. So much for their platitudes of "holding each other to account" - yeah, right.
The finances of the game have changed enormously in the last 20 years but, as Peter Varney tweeted that a while back, when he joined Charlton as MD, his salary was £48,000 at a time we were turning over more than £40 million and making a profit before player trading.
Wages costs were up £1.85m while non football staff fell from 57 to 42. A big chunk of this is the £800,000 increase in senior management pay.
So being generous you could assume for argument’s sake that there was a circa £1m increase in the playing budget, which resulted in the lowest finish for 98 years.
Well, Methven certainly has the potential for a starring role in a Netflix documentary.
Dull the pain with a few Macallans each.
We mug punters season ticket holders won’t mind paying for their comforts.
So many variables, Tel. There are clubs in League 1 who have only one objective - survival, owned by local businessmen who are fans and who take a very hands on approach versus clubs who are owned by hands-off foreign money men, a set-up for a higher division (with relatively recent history of the top division) and who have promotion as the primary objective. CM would have been one of the highest paid CEOs in League 1 because we fall into the latter category, but I readily accept he was overpaid if £300k is correct - others will be much lower. The Championship may have an average of £295k but there will be/are CEOs who are close to seven figures, and others much less than the £295k - again for the same ownership set-up reasons and aspirations. Note - that £295k figure is from 2020.
And pay for my own season ticket.
I would be crap at the job, but then again I would be free gratis, and not distracted by thoughts of Peterborough or Oxford United.
They say you get what you pay for, but with me they would get something for nothing.
If we're taking remunerated C-suite at the time as Methven, Rodwell, Warrick, Andy Scott, Nathan Jones, Paul Elliott (assuming it's an exec VC spot), and perhaps Gavin Carter, then that is just shy of £250k per person on average. We can safely presume Jones is on more than that, and Elliott/Carter significantly less.
So... what's the money doing up there? I'd love to understand it and dig deeper. I can tell you for a fact that this sort of compensation is generous, to say the least, for at least one league above ours.
At least the owners appear to be taking action. That level of exec pay is not far off what executives for some teams who are perennially in Europe get.
They in fact went up. At the same time, we increased our Senior management spending by a lot. We reduced our playing squad. We got rid of two managers that the Senior management hired.
The simple point is that CM lied. He probably knew he was lying all along. I am grateful he found us some wealthy owners, but he should have been paid for that and then told to walk away as he is totally unqualified to run a football club.
The mismanagement of the club's finances in his period of being involved is an unequivocal failure.
He said you'd have to be stupid to not be able to reduce our operating losses. So therefore he is stupid. In his own words.
Horseshit from the get go, telling fans all the stuff they wanted to hear (sleeping giant, big club in league1, great stadium, etc) all to be shown for what it was always about, a way to be overpaid for doing very little. I'd argue there are users on here who could do a better job and for free.
Hopefully this is the end of these slimeball types getting their paws on us, in their luxury overpaid roles. They had no place being associated with us.
A tiger simply cannot change its stripes, and a bullshitter will always prove themselves to be just that, if you give them enough time. Good riddance.
How about inviting Kevin Maguire for an interview? Bromley addicks? Probably cost afew dollars
Kieran Maguire would probably be up for it - he does a lot of stuff with fan groups. He lives in East Sussex but works in Liverpool so he's always dashing up and down the country.
Also worth signing up to the Price of Football club, which has a monthly zoom Q&A on Zoom with Maguire and Kevin Day (who can be a bit sniffy about us, being a Palace fan, but hey ho): https://priceoffootball.com/support-the-podcast/
The actual number is closer to £30m at June 30th 2024, some of which is deferred income and some the ex-director loans, which are contingent.
About £10m of debt to Sandgaard’s holding company was written off when the ownership transferred, so the liabilities fell.
I think @Weegie Addick is too, but if not, and I can help, let me know.
Whether that is true or not is another matter.
Also I feel like these accounts have a lot less information in them than previous years
The £1.9m is buried in note 24 on p31.