Stoke City’s staggering weekly loss since relegation as Coates’ investment goes unrewarded
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire runs the rule over new accounts which shine a light on Stoke City’s finances
Stoke City have lost an average £676,000-a-week since relegation from the Premier League as a football finance expert admits performance compared to investment is frustrating for supporters and baffling to outsiders.
Stoke have recorded a £30 million loss for the 12 months up to the end of March 2024, which has been revealed in new accounts from then owners bet365.
A lot of that money will not count towards Financial Fair Play calculations, from which spending in infrastructure and the academy is excluded, while the £15m sale of Harry Souttar which largely bankrolled an £18m transfer spree was in the previous year.
Most Championship clubs are losing cash at a spectacular rate as they try to get anywhere near the Premier League, which is in a different financial orbit, but Stoke’s inability to even finish in the top half of the Championship since 2018 while the Coates family has pumped in hundreds of millions of pounds makes them a sorry case.
Kieran Maguire – an author, podcaster and academic on money in football – said: “I think there is a big difference between spending money and spending it well. Nobody can doubt the degree of support that the Coates family have given Stoke City Football Club in terms of funding to improve for players, improve facilities for fans and also, from a fans’ perspective most of all, to put money into the playing budget to, in theory, make them competitive. And they should be far better higher up the Championship over the course of the last six or seven seasons than what has manifested.
“Stoke fans must have a bittersweet humour. ‘What are we aiming for this season? Fifteenth, oh the same as last season.’ And again and again, keep changing the manager, keep changing the squad and it keeps being repeated again and again despite these losses.
