The Esk
Player Valuation: £70m
The treatment of player values is relatively simple in accounting terms.
A player is an asset that depreciates in value in a straight line over the course of his contract. So a player bought at £3 million with a 3 year contract sees his book value decrease by £1 million per year. The depreciation of £1 million each year affects the profit and loss account and the balance sheet but for the purposes of short term cost controls we don't need to worry about that.
If the player is sold at the end of his second year for £10 million, the club creates a profit of £10 million minus the current book value. In this case it would be £10 million minus £1 million, creating a profit of £9 million in the P&L account at the end of the financial year.
For the purposes of STCC that £9 million profit is added to non-broadcasting revenues. The relevance of this is the wage increase cap of £7 million plus any increase in non-broadcasting revenues.
In terms of the second regulation ( profitability and sustainability) depreciation can be a factor if the squad is expensively assembled - for example a squad with an acquisition cost of £200 million and an average contract length of 4 years will see £50 million a year deducted from the P&L account in depreciation. That plus the wages may put a club in potential breach of the accumulated loss limit of £105 million over any three year period. This is not an issue for Everton and is unlikely to be so in the future.
