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Town Accounts Show Evans Waived or Settled £96m in Loans
Thursday, 1st Jul 2021 09:39

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has given an assessment of Town’s accounts for the year to the end of June 2020 which were published yesterday and reveal that former owner Marcus Evans waived or settled almost £96 million in loans as part of the agreement which saw Gamechanger 20 take charge of the club in April.

The accounts cover the 2019/20 season, the Blues’ first in League One which covers the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Relegation saw the club’s revenue drop from £17.95 million the previous year to £10.63 million, while the Blues’ wage bill fell from £19.25 million in the final Championship season to £12.85 million.

Town made a loss of £5.25 million compared to £3.60 million a year earlier and an operating loss of £8.64 million compared to £10.78 million 2018/19. Accumulated losses had reached £100 million.

Season ticket sales were up from 10,618 in the final year in the Championship to 12,870 and the average league attendance was up to 19,549 from 17,767.

The accounts show that the club received £1.1 million in furlough payments from late March to the end of June with further payments having been made in the following months while the lockdown continued.

In July general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill confirmed that some of the players had been on furlough as well as off-field staff.

The club’s overall debt had risen to £116.93 million with almost all of that owned to other Evans companies in loans.

Regarding Evans’s write-off of his debts following the takeover, the accounts say: As a result of the change of ownership, there has been a significant debt restructuring. In total, loans and other amounts due to group companies of £95,877,000 at the balance sheet date have been waived or settled on the Group’s behalf.”

In April, new chairman Mike O'Leary confirmed that the club's only remaining debt is £400,000, which is understood to be the loan notes issued to well-heeled fans following the club's period of administration.

Following the takeover Evans has a five per cent stake in Gamechanger 20, which owns 87.5 per cent of the club with the PLC - the shareholding prior to Evans's 2007 takeover - retaining 12.5 per cent.


Photo: Action Images



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RaymondovicBlue added 09:49 - Jul 1
There are many ways of investing in a football club. The sexy way that gets you either promoted or into administration with ffp fines..... or the blummen expensive and unappreciated way. Thanks for your efforts and your gift into Ipswich town Marcus, it couldn't go on like that for you or the club so thank you for finding a good way forward too
66

Billybobblue added 09:50 - Jul 1
Shows how bad the club is run when the debt is 11 times higher than the yearly turnover.
I'm more confident in the way we will be run in future and lets hope with some investment we can get back in the championship and then the prem in future.
1

Timefliesbyintheblue added 09:52 - Jul 1
There will be lots of comments bemoaning Marcus Evans tenure of ITFC. For my part his largest error was in not appointing a diligent Chief Executive with knowledge of running a football club. Hindsight though is a wonderful asset and now is the time to move on with perhaps a smidgen of gratitude that ME in effect wrote off nearly £100 million.
Onwards and upwards - hopefully!
33

naenormalblues added 09:59 - Jul 1
And still he gets slagged off. The man genuinely did his best despite some of the rubbish some of our fans come out with.

Glad he's gone now and we've got some fresh investment and enthusiasm but he's not as bad as people made out
48

midastouch added 10:09 - Jul 1
I wasn't a fan of Marcus Evans and I'm very glad he's sold, as we weren't going anywhere under his watch (apart from backwards). That said, if he wanted to he could have really left us in the s**t! However, it seems he was decent and honourable enough to find a way out that didn't leave us in huge financial mess.
28

Bluearmy_81 added 10:09 - Jul 1
He oversaw the worst and most embarrassing period in Ipswich's history. 14 years of underachievement and failure. He ran us so badly that a total reset from top to bottom was the only way the club could move forward. Yet some fans here are still gushing over him 🙄🤷‍♂️
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RegencyBlue added 10:10 - Jul 1

Yes he's written off the debt but what choice did he have? Nobody was going to buy the club with that amount of debt and more of Evans ‘five year plans' would have seen us in the Fourth Division at best and probably in Administration to boot.

No doubt his usual apologists will be out in force to defend him but there was nothing good about that mans time at PR!
1

cromwellblue added 10:12 - Jul 1
You have to acknowledge the investment, it was just his football decisions were poor.

What this also tells us is a wage bill of £12M against a turnover of £10M means we had to move the big earners on. Assuming a similar turnover for the coming year we need to halve it!!

Our average £6.5K, league average £2.5K. Not sustainable.

I suggest a few might like to reconsider their view on Paul Cook. The constant reporting of him telling the squad to move on is more likely a cost cutting exercise then kicking them all out, along with removing those he does not want.

Having also seen a few comment regarding the bid to Rotherham, is it not refreshing to now see us selling high and buying low. Ashton has secured fees for Lankaster & Hawkins (albeit probably nominal) when the previous owner would have just let them go for nothing.

And now no sign of splashing £1.6 million on players, start low a work from there.

We should be happy the club is now being run by professionals.


22

IpswichT62OldBoy added 10:19 - Jul 1
I am no accountant but I do agree with Midas, he could have left us in a pile of dung, the fact the dung was his own is not the point at this stage.
I don't think anyone is gushing over him, I was glad to see him go but interestingly 5% holding demonstrates his confidence for Town's future.
Our new owners seem better placed to do well for us because they have experience of running football clubs, as Timeflysby stated.
15

Ipswichbusiness added 10:30 - Jul 1
That he wrote off £96 million shows just how desperate he was to find an exit from a disastrous investment.

As for debts of 11 times revenue, all I can say is that rarely has so much been spent for such a paltry outcome.
-3

Brazils_Hair added 10:37 - Jul 1
Bluearmy 81 - you have summed it up perfectly!
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cranky_old_tractor added 10:39 - Jul 1
And for this Mr Evans we are thankful
0

Bazza8564 added 10:41 - Jul 1
Its good to read some appreciation for him, £100m of losses is staggering and whilst his tenure marked a hugely unsuccessful period for the club, his stewardship in finding the new owners should not be undervalued.
As for debt v turnover, well it would have been the other way around with a run in the top flight, it just goes to show how much of a tightrope football clubs are.
Ive never thought of him as a bad man, but neither did he have the ability to bring us back to the promised land.
Time for us to get behind the new regime in our numbers, because their ability to take us forward is significantly better.
COYB
9

ITFC_95 added 10:46 - Jul 1
Tricky to assess this really. On one hand you have to respect the continued investment to keep us afloat but ultimately Evans' poor decision making led to reduced revenues and his desperation to sell at a huge loss. All EFL clubs seem to lose money so we can't get ahead of ourselves and expect the current investment to be sustainable in the long term but hopefully we can take the opportunity to correct the infrastructure and culture of the club.
4

ghostofescobar added 10:51 - Jul 1
For anyone drifting towards some rose tinted reassessment of his time here because of this news, I'd refer you again to Alan Lee's podcast interview, which laid bare the completely dysfunctional club that we'd become under Evans. This man was disastrous for ITFC. That debt was largely down to his own criminally poor decisions, admittedly not helped by some bad luck, but you make your own luck......Evans stripped down the club to a completely rudderless husk, plodding aimlessly around in the third tier of English football, all the time pulling the wool over the eyes of the fans. He may be a "decent" person, who knows, he never friggin' spoke, but to say he was incompetent would be charitable. A stain on our history. It genuinely pains me to think what he did to us. I get the "yer, but he gave us some cash" view, but if you donate to the RSPCA, that doesn't excuse you in any way for kicking the cr@p out of your dog every night. And there is no excusing what he did to us. None. So he wrote off £100mill? Tough. His mistakes. Currently the only bad thing about about the takeover is that he still has that 5% stake. I want him out. Gone. For good.
1

austractor added 10:58 - Jul 1
Thanks Marcus.

You had the best of intentions but the people in football you took advice from gave you criminally inept advice and it cost you - massively.

Anyway, you bailed the club out twice and as a fan I'm grateful. Yeah it's not good where we are but we have a fresh start now and I hope it turns out how we all hoped your time at the club would.

Cheers
6

GatesPerm added 11:06 - Jul 1
You can say what you like about Evans and many have but whichever way you look at it he saved this club from potential liquidation twice. Firstly when he originally purchased the club and now by writing off this massive amount of debt. Let's face it, who was going to buy a League 1 club with circa £100m of debt?

Unfortunately, he just had no idea how to run a football club and more importantly didn't bring people in who did.

I have supported this club since my first game with my father in 1969 and believe me the pain of the last few years has been horrible but I for one say thank you to Evans for writing off the massive debt and hopefully better times are around the corner.

You can't keep looking back, you have to focus on the future.
8

Bluearmy_81 added 11:08 - Jul 1
Well said ghost. At times I felt like some fans would have been better off supporting Evans bank balance than ITFC, they seemed to be more attached to and interested in the the former. There was so much, "he does this, he does that" (like pay the bills?! 🤷‍♂️😮) while the club continued to sink and flounder. As a supporter of ITFC the pitiful state we were in should have been all that mattered. We had way too many apologists for his failure, endless patience, apathetic acceptance and understanding. Never again town fans, part of being a good fan is standing up for your club when it's being dragged through the dirt. There should have been protests/demonstrations about 6 years ago...
1

BettyBlue added 11:08 - Jul 1
Thanks to all the players, managers, and hangers-on that filled their own boots with cash and delivered less than zero.

And to the new crowd about to do the same.
-4

brassy added 11:08 - Jul 1
mr evans main failing in my humble opinnion was selecting managers they were all crap
good luck cookie you are going to need it COYBs
-2

missyouburley added 11:13 - Jul 1
Evans originally bought the Nationwide stand loans at a massively reduced rate when he acquired the club. These compounded loans he didn't make must be part of the £97m write off.Did he do this for the love of Ipswich or as a punt based on a quick promotion & repay. Who knows but the punt went wrong. He will have received the sale price which also reduces the loss. It was still a considerable investment & he's leaving in an orderly fashion which is to be commended.

The new owners have taken an educated gamble that our turnover & fanbase is massive for the division & if they offload the ridiculously paid current crop, they can compete for 25% of the wages. Hence all the players going & the new recruits surely on a minute % of their wages.

Any promotion pure upside. Starting debt free. Quite a sensible business for a pension fund.
2

WhoisJimmyJuan added 11:36 - Jul 1
Yes he may have made mistakes but he's tan honourable responsibility for them. Move forward now folks and ease up on the vitriol please.
1

Bobbiesboys added 11:39 - Jul 1
That's the least he could do after running our fantastic club into the ground and making us a laughing stock throughout the footballing world. But lets forget all that now and look ahead which is looking very exciting.
0

Crinkle59 added 12:31 - Jul 1
as a 92 .y o. who saw my 1st game in 1939 i just feel that no-one has thought about where would we have been If Marcus Evans had not saved us Twice yes he had no idea how to run a football club But possibly saved ITFC from extinction to present day fans You have no idea what it was like watching in the 3rd division days believe me !
3

Bluearmy_81 added 12:39 - Jul 1
He didn't save us at all, (this is an often repeated falasy) we were out of administration and there were other potential buyers at the time. Its a pity one of those didn't buy us instead as the last 14 years couldn't have been much worse. Crinkle, you must one of the only people alive that remembers Ipswich being worse than we were last season, that says it all!!
-1


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