LONDON: Arsenal have announced a record loss of more than £100m for the year ending 31 May, 2021.

After losses of less than £50m during the previous year, Arsenal posted post-tax losses of £107.3m, the biggest in the club’s history.

The Gunners say as much as £85m of their losses are attributable to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Arsenal played just two games in front of a crowd at their Emirates Stadium during the 2020-21 season.

As a result, matchday revenue fell by £75m to £3.8m.

Overall wage costs came in at £244m – a near £10m increase from 2020 – despite Arsenal’s first-team players and head coach Mikel Arteta having agreed to a voluntary pay cut of 12.5% to help with the financial impact of the pandemic.

As a result of 55 redundancies, the club incurred exceptional costs of £6.7m while the total profit on player sales earned the club £11.8m compared to £60.1m in 2020.

Arsenal’s latest financial results were released just hours after they announced a 4% rise in ticket prices for the 2022-23 season to deal with “rising costs”.

“We recognise that no-one welcomes price increases, and this decision has not been taken lightly,” a club statement read.

“Ultimately in the face of continued rising costs, we need to continue to drive growth in all our revenue streams – including matchday – as part of our aim to return our finances to a break-even position in the medium term.”

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