Burnley announce £11.7million loss for last year
Published 23:00 20/11/09 By By Alan Nixon
Premier League new boys Burnley lost a record
£11.7million last year - and saved their skins by winning the play-offs.
The full extent of the Lancashire club's financial tightrope walk was revealed in their accounts yesterday and proved how close they sailed to the wind.
Chairman Barry Kilby and money-man Brendan Flood had been picking up the tab for past deficits, but the latest figure could have left them in real peril if they had not beaten Sheffield United at Wembley to reach the Premier League.
Boss Owen Coyle pulled off more than a miracle as the figures revealed the club's wages rose to £13.4 m, including around £2m in bonuses - a relatively small sum compared to their Championship rivals.
The Clarets also made more from TV, which shot up by almost 50 per cent to £7.3m. However their overall losses would still have put them on the brink.
Missing out on the Premier League cash could have seen a handful of sales just to claw back money - confirming the play-off success as the biggest day in their history.
