Premiership strugglers Fulham have announced record losses of œ33.6m for the 12 months up to 30 June last year.
Although turnover increased from œ10m to œ32.7m after Fulham won promotion to the Premier League, the club continues to lose money.
“In the 2001-02 season we consolidated our place in the Premier League, finishing in 13th position, and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 27 years,” said the club’s owner Mohamed Al Fayed,
“This moderate success on the field came at an exorbitant cost to the club and necessitated a huge additional capital investment.
“In the long term it is clear that we must take stringent measures if we are to build a club that will last another 100 years and be financially strong enoughalways to challenge for top honours.”
Fulham have spent œ37.5m on transfers in a bid to establish the club as a force in the Premier League.
“Getting the club established in the Premier League was obviously a costly exercise and these figures represent that,” said Fulham’s finance director Andy Ambler.
“But over the past 12 months we have returned to more prudent policies, and with the budgetary controls we now have in place we hope we will see the club breaking even within the next two or three years.”
