There has been a very interesting post on the official Arsenal website this morning announcing that the club have applied for and secured a short-term 120 million GB pounds loan from the Bank of England.
The fund was set up by the government to help British companies to get through the Covid crisis and to offset the consequences of a cash-flow crisis due to therestrictions placed on the economy. Obviously Arsenal have suffered drastically through the lack of matchday revenue due to crowds not being allowed in the stadiums and related income streams.
Club to receive Bank of England COVID loan
As we continue to work through the implications of the global pandemic on our finances, we can confirm today that the club has met the criteria set by the Bank of England for the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).As a result, we are taking a short-term £120 million loan through this facility to partially assist in managing the impact of the revenue losses attributable to the pandemic. This is a similar approach to that taken by a wide variety of major organisations across many industries including sport, and is repayable in May 2021.
The loan is only short-term and I imagine that Arsenal and the government are hoping that the vaccine will be in widespread use by then and the crowds could return to the Emirates and contribute to repaying the loan.
Obviously I have no idea if these funds could give any boost to Mikel Arteta’s transfer kitty, but the fact that the club is reducing the size of the bloated squad, and reducing the wage bill (even more in June) means there will easily be more funds available to repay the loan in the summer.
We just all have to hope that the world doesn’t receive any more setbacks in the war against Covid-19 and we can start getting back to the ‘new normal’ by then.
Fingers crossed!
<h3><em>READ MORE: <a href=”https://www.caughtoffside.com/2021/01/07/photo-done-deal-arsenal-officially-confirm-their-first-january-signing-and-give-a-major-hint-over-his-initial-status/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>Photo: Done deal – Arsenal officially confirm their first January signing and give a major hint over his initial status</a></em></h3>