Football We’re very fortunate to have Wael’s backing, says Starnes
Wael has committed to cover those losses for the next two seasons as an absolute minimum
MARTYN Starnes, the Bristol Rovers CEO, believes the club are “very fortunate” to have the backing of Wael Al-Qadi, who has vowed to steer the Gas through the financial uncertainty of the coronavirus outbreak.
Al-Qadi, Rovers’ president, has committed to covering the club’s financial losses for at least the next two seasons, Starnes revealed in an online fans’ forum.
The club anticipates the pandemic to cause difficulties throughout the EFL, but the Rovers board are confident the club is in a stable position thanks to the commitment of their owner.
“We’re very fortunate in having the backing of Wael, who will help us to get through this very difficult period,” Starnes told Gasheads on a Zoom video call.
“Clearly the pandemic affected our finances in the season that’s just concluded and will continue to affect our finances in the forthcoming season.
“We budgeted out until the end of June 2022. Clearly, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the assumptions we made, be we know there’s going to be losses in that period and Wael has committed to cover those losses for the next two seasons as an absolute minimum.
“We’re fortunate, a lot more than many other clubs, to have that sort of backing, and to that extent we will be sustainable for the foreseeable period.”
Al-Qadi has already confirmed his commitment to the club over this extended off-season, capitalising more than £18 million in loans and writing off in excess of £2 million in interest through a change of ownership structure which left the club debt free.
However, the club remains in a loss-making position, with the most recent accounts published in March showing a loss of greater than £3 million in a 12-month period.
Starnes says the club remains committed to becoming more sustainable, though their efforts will be hampered by the pandemic.
“We recognise the losses were too high got them to continue,” he said. When I came into the club a couple of years ago obviously you’ve got a situation with a lot of legacy contracts that need to unwind.
“We’ve been doing that over the past 12 months and if Covid-19 hadn’t have hit us we would have reduced the losses by 50 per cent on the previous year. We were well on track to achieving that.
“Clearly, the next few months are going to be quite difficult and challenging, but we do have strategy for steadily reducing these losses over time and we are planning make sure that the club gets into a breakeven, if not profitable situation, at some stage in the future.
“I wouldn’t like to put any timing on it at the moment, but that is the strategy we’re aiming for. We don’t want to continue incurring operating losses indefinitely.”