Warning issued as accounts show millions in combined League of Ireland losses

Bohemians President Matt Devaney has issued a stark warning for League of Ireland clubs after worrying figures emerged from accounts posted for 2023.

Bohs fan John O’Connor, who regularly posts about the financial wellbeing of Irish sides based on public filings, offered a grim assessment of the latest figures, which do not include owner or investor contributions, and relate solely to trading profits/losses.

They show that nine Premier League clubs - UCD excluded - made combined losses of €7.6m last year, with Shamrock Rovers topping the table with €2.15m.

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The Hoops, however, should be in a much stronger position this time around, with their Europa Conference League revenue predicted to top €6m.

Not all clubs can rely on big UEFA windfalls, however, and Dundalk’s flirting with liquidation towards the end of the season should come as a warning to all sides.

That’s according to Devaney, who wrote on Bluesky: “We relayed this info to our members at our recent AGM.For a league like ours to have cumulative losses of almost €8m in one season is staggering.

“No way the party can continue in my view. We’ve had the Dundalk situation this year and we need some safeguards to try and prevent further casualties.”

The figures published by O’Connor, who goes under the handle @chippie1974 on X and Bluesky, show that the Oriel Park outfit incurred losses of €1.19m in 2023.

That brings their total losses over the past six seasons to €4.9m.

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Only three clubs have recorded a profit over the past six seasons - with Bohs on top of the pile. They are also the only one of the three clubs (Finn Harps and Longford Town are also there) to have been ever-present in the top-flight over those six years, with just Premier Division figures reported.

Despite a loss of just under a quarter-of-a-million in 2023, Bohemians’ six-year figure stands at a profit of €2,496,294.

Bohs do face a challenging few years

You can see the figures here:

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