Swansea City: A design for life?

Fiscal prudence and continued success go hand in hand in South Wales, but could the non-football world learn a thing or two?

Over the last decade, we've seen the Swans grow from a club plying their trade in the lower echelons of the league in a decrepit (but oh so lovely) stadium, to Premier League middleweights renowned for their fine football on the field, coupled with strict financial control off it. 

I often try to draw analogies between football and the world at large, as I believe the huge amount of attention football gets in the public eye means it's an effective medium through which to get across any kind of important message - the anti-racism campaign "Kick It Out" is an example of this, although for me by simply trying to "rid the game" of any malevolent element you're missing the big picture - surely we should be trying to rid society of racism, as opposed to football alone? 

The news is constantly full of depressing stories about triple-dip recessions, rescue packages and all sorts of other financial doom and gloom, and when you consider how heavily most big clubs are propped up by rich backers is football really in a better state? There are very few clubs operating in the manner the Swans are, and those who do stand to benefit if the whole financial pyramid comes crashing down. The continued increase in, well, everything associated with football simply cannot continue, and at some point the bubble must surely burst.

This is why I love the Swans so much. Ok, I've always loved the Swans, but to see them operating so responsibly in a sea of shady back-handers really is heart-warming. In an age where, in football and society alike, people spend beyond their means looking for the big new shiny object of affection, they have shown that by knuckling down, working hard, and believing in what you're doing it's possible to achieve just about anything. 

UEFA are currently assessing clubs according to their "Financial Fair Play" regulations which are due to come into effect, however how they're going to go about enforcing that is anyone's guess. Do you really see them turning around to Manchester City, Real Madrid & Paris Saint-Germain and saying "Sorry guys, I know you're a large part of why people pay for Skysports and all that, but you're not competing because you don't break even as a club"? Unlikely, and as long as there's massive media interest in huge transfer fees and star signings it's hard to see anything changing.

That's why Swansea City continuing to compete at the highest level is so impressive. They've done it through hard graft and sheer bloody-mindedness, and the honesty of the approach is a refreshing ray of light through an increasingly dirty window.

Swansea City - A design for life? You betcha.

Swansea announce record profit - what does the dividend payment actually mean?

Announcement that Swans will be paying out dividends to shareholders splits opinion amongst some fans

The announcement yesterday that the Swans had made a £15.9million profit (after tax & interest) for the six months leading to November 30th 2012 came as no surprise to anyone familiar with how the Swansea hierarchy do things. Prudence has long been the byword in these parts, and the board continue to seek out the best deal for Swansea City at every corner, in an attempt to maximise the opportunities continued Premier League involvement provides.


One aspect of the statement which seems to have split some fans though is the announcement that for the first time a £1million dividend is to be paid out to shareholders. I'm going to set my stall out early and say I have absolutely no problem whatsoever in the Swans directors being paid a dividend at this stage. As stated by Huw Jenkins, dividends are (as far as the taxman goes) the most cost-effective way of rewarding staff, and the club have been open and honest whenever money has been doled out. Given the makeup of the club's ownership, it's likely the dividend will be broken up as follows;

Name	Stake	Likely dividend
Mr & Mrs Martin Morgan	22.50%	£225,000.00
Brian Katzen	20.00%	£200,000.00
Swansea City Supporters Trust	20.00%	£200,000.00
Huw Jenkins	12.50%	£125,000.00
Robert Davies	10.00%	£100,000.00

The statement last night posted by the Swans Supporters' Trust showed they will receive £199,999 - so where that extra quid went is anyone's guess. Given the Swans history of financial dealings, maybe it paid for the envelope in which the dividend was delivered! The trust have indicated they will hang onto the money until, hopefully, they can increase their stake in the club - which seems like a very sensible attitude to take. While looking for information for this blog I came across an article posted on the Birmingham Supporters' Trust site which labelled the Swans as a "benchmark" which other clubs should aspire to - definitely worth a read:  http://www.bluestrust.org/2013/01/the-benchmark-swansea-city/.

David Conn from the Guardian and a small section of the Swansea support seem unhappy that some money is being taken out of the club, but considering the board of directors worked for free until last year (if my memory serves correctly - finding info related to the statement where that was detailed seems impossible!), and the shareholders have, before now, never taken anything back from the Swans, I'd say it's only fair they've been rewarded for their hard work over the years. It's likely that any of the Swans first XI will make more in one year than any of the shareholders have just been paid - and when you consider the dividend could be considered payment for ten years of work it becomes an even smaller figure.

A friend sent me a link to an article from October 2010 showing how much chief executives were earning at clubs up and down the country. Given that all of the relative figures are likely to have risen substantially in the three years which have elapsed since the article was published, the dividend payments made to the Swansea shareholders really do seem inconsequential amounts for a Premier League club. See the list below for more detail, but as an example Ivan Gazidis of Arsenal received £2.1million for the year 2011/12 - more than double the dividend paid out to the ENTIRE Swansea board, and I very much doubt Gazidis has ever put his hand in his own pocket to help out the club he works for.

Obviously, it's not nice to see money leaving the club, but few could argue that the board don't deserve some kind of renumeration. Huw Jenkins had to watch as his construction company went under (no doubt increased Swans-related commitments had an impact on his running of his business), and Leigh Dineen famously stated he'd had to re-mortgage his house to raise the funds necessary to buy shares when the opportunity first arose. These are not fabulously wealthy people; these are people who have worked tirelessly over a decade to secure a sound future for the football club we all love - and if they don't deserve to be rewarded then who does? 

Given that the announcement was for "interim financial results" up to November 30th '12 (with a full report due at the end of the tax year in April), it's likely the Swans will end up posting a record profit for this tax year - as revenue accrued from the cup run and the sale of Danny Graham won't have been included in these figures. It'll be interesting to see if dividends become a regular occurrence, or whether it was viewed as a one-off reward for the board's hard work, but for now I can honestly say I've no problem with the payments whatsoever, especially considering 20% of it is essentially being retained by the club. 

Carry on the good work, chaps!