Angels With Filthy Souls - Cypriot League Finances

So what the hell am I writing about here? I’m going to talk about the Cypriot’s favourite thing to talk about.

And more accurately, how badly the finances for a lot of Cypriot teams are being mismanaged.

But first, a word on where my data is coming from and some pertinent information regarding the requirement and accuracy of said data. For the purposes of according with the relevant legislation provided by UEFA for the purposes of Financial Fair Play, transparency and reduction of corruption in the game, suitable financial information for all top flight clubs is to be made readily available for scrutiny. The Cyprus FA provides a page on their website which contains all said information from clubs which is split into their accounts for the last financial year and how much they have paid in agents’ fees over the last financial year.

Here’s a link, just in case you don’t want to read through all my rubbish: https://www.cfa.com.cy/Gr/downloads/2

It should be noted, the information available at the time of writing (2nd February 2023) is for the year leading up to December 2021. So there will be some quite drastic changes dependant on the club.

So, what can we find in these documents that may be of interest here? Well, let me break it down for you:

APOEL

The total “comprehensive income” for the year leading up to December 2021 is -9,271,614 euros. They also had a total comprehensive income in 2020 of -5,678,217 euros. Note the minuses. That’s listed as their income.

Their total liabilities (money owed) are 27,429,749 euros. 27 million euros. They owe 27 million euros.

This season, APOEL did not make it very far through qualifying for Europe so guess what’s going to happen to that number in the liabilities column?

In addition to that, they spent 117,000 euros on agents fees.

AEK Larnaca

Compared to APOEL, AEK are very healthy finance-wise, which is mostly to do with something in their income listed as “Other operating income”. Considering there’s nothing in there specific to the European exploits, you’d think that’s what it’s referring to. They have listed income from ticket sales associated with the European games, as well as TV money, advertising, money from the Cyprus FA and season tickets.

Considering they listed all the other income, it’s weird that they have listed the prize money for Europe in “Other”.

Also, they have paid about 57k euros on agents’ fees.

On 27th January 2023, AEK released a press statement that thanks to a change in payments for government loans, the club had paid off the accrued historic debt. Based off their 2021 balance sheet, this means that the value of the company in essence increased by 1,545,923 euros.

AEL Limassol

The available finances for AEL are split between the company associated with the football club, and the actual association. Their income has been split from earnings from the club shop and then “other income”, included provision of income based on subsidies for COVID 19 and “Other operating income”. What’s noted is also a deficit associated with running the football department of the association and the academy teams.

It looks like the owner of the football club pays the association a 100,000 euro fee for “management fees”. In addition the association makes income from members’ fees, renting of space and my favourite, “Contributions of funs”.

They have also included a zero sum for “Decrease in provision for doubtful debts”.

All in all, combined losses for AEL as one entity is 523,207 euros for the year. Their balance on 31st December 2021 was -17,888,577.

Just a reminder, in summer 2022 they signed Kevin Mirallas, Aaron Tshibola, Alexandr Kacaniklic, Muriel etc etc etc. The wages and agents’ fees on that is going to be eye-watering. Considering they spent almost 210k euros on agents’ fees in the year ending December 2021, that balance sheet is going to hurt next year.

Anorthosis

The club have been very closed regarding where the income has come from for 2021, however they have confirmed, on paper at least, that revenue was close to 9 million euros. They also made a weird number for profit regarding “players trading” of 216,435 euros. They made an operating profit of 130,750 euros.

As of end of 2021, Anorthosis were the only team in the league without any debts. Now that Poullaidis and his deep pockets are leaving, there may be problems ahead, considering the loss in equity has been reduced by 4.7 million euros and change thanks to“advances from shareholders”.

Tiny side note: they paid 237 euros in tax.

They still have approximately 19.5 million euros of accumulated losses over the years which counts for a lot of the negative equity they are sat on. The financial mismanagement of the years following their successes in the league and Europe still hitting them hard.

According to their official paperwork, they only paid 3,000 euros in agents’ fees in 2021. There’s also another 6 clubs who say they have paid zero in agents’ fees.

Apollon

It looks like the club winning the league in 2021/2022 and their galavanting in the Europa Conference League group stage this season couldn’t have come at a better time, as Apollon’s total equity as of December 2021 is -11 million euros with accumulated losses of more than 21 million euros. As disastrous as Apollon’s European escapades have been this season, having played in the Champions League and Europa League Qualifiers, and taking part in the Conference league Groups will bode well for getting those losses under control.

Omonia

Omonia have an operating loss in 2021 of 2.6 and something million euros. On top of that they have listed an almost 600k euro loss due to “Finance costs”.

Worrying fact that they have to contend with is the massive sack of debt they are currently dragging along with them and have barely made a dent in from the year before. That goes along with a massive number associated with the negative liability.

Playing Manchester United and Real Sociedad in the Europa League group stage will have done wonders for the team finances, even if the results were not great. Selling Bruno to Pafos will also have made a small dent. But together, would they have been a 36 million euro dent? Unlikely.

Ethnikos Achnas

Ethnikos have to somehow pay off borrowings of over 6 million euros, which is only beaten by the loans AEL and Omonia have on their books. The difference between Ethnikos and the other two teams is that AEL and Omonia are still in the First Division in the 2022/23 season. One dreads to think what Ethnikos’ books look like this time round, even with a cup final last season under their belts. Life in the Second Division is hard most of the time with little financial help and reduced ticket sales.

To simplify what this all looks like, here’s a table of income, expenditure and “costs” to make it all easier to look at.