Off the back of three European nights in Dublin and a run to the final of the FAI Cup, the operating company behind Dublin’s Bohemians Football Club generated a surplus of over €733,000 in 2021.
Accounts filed by Bohemians FC Company Limited by Guarantee on Tuesday suggest the club was financially match fit at the end of November last year after one of its more successful seasons in recent years.
The €733,612 surplus helped bring the Phibsborough side’s total reserves to almost €2.7 million at the end of its financial year, mostly due to its performance in the inaugural season of the Uefa Europa Conference League last summer, a spokesman for the club said.
The club received €250,000 for making it to the first qualifying round, where they beat Icelandic side Stjarnan over two legs. Bohs also received a €600,000 bonus for beating Luxembourg club F91 Dudelange to proceed to the third qualifying round. But the Dublin 7 club narrowly lost out on qualification for the group stages of the tournament — worth an additional €3 million — after falling 2-0 to PAOK in Thessaloniki, having beaten the Greek side 2-1 at home.
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However, Gypsies supporters notably filled out their restricted seating allocations for three ties at the Aviva Stadium, which had an average attendance of over 7,300.
A run to the final of the FAI Cup — where Bohemians lost 4-3 on penalties to St Patrick’s Athletic — last November also boosted gate receipts and merchandise sales to the tune of another six-figure sum, the spokesman said.
Looking ahead, the accounts note that the board is projecting a small loss for the 2022 financial year, after finishing fifth in the League of Ireland Premier Division, missing out on a chance to qualify for this year’s Conference League.
“This small budgeted loss will be covered by reserves already earned,” the accounts note.
“Based on the strength of the club’s balance sheet and with no need for external financing, the board have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the company will have adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.”
