Tottenham forced to take out £175m loan to see them through coronavirus pandemic

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The scale of financial losses for football clubs on the back of the coronavirus pandemic is nothing new, but with Tottenham Hotspur having to take out a £175m loan to help keep the wolf from the door, it once again brings those matters into sharp focus.

The transfer window in the summer is likely to take on an entirely different air than usual, predominantly because clubs just don’t have the money to buy big names at this point. The lack of supporters through the door and broadcast revenue has hit them hard.

For Tottenham, things are even worse, given that during this summer alone, they were expecting revenue from Guns N’ Roses, Lady Gaga and the Capital Summertime Ball concerts at their new White Hart Lane stadium, per BBC Sport.

Not to mention two NFL games that were due to be held in the autumn, a Rugby League Ashes Test in November as well as Anthony Joshua’s world title fight with Kubrat Pulev.

And that’s not all. BBC Sport also report that the club have had to pay back an unspecified rebate amount to broadcasters.

Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, is under no illusions as to why the loan was required.

“We have always run this club on a self-sustaining commercial basis,” BBC Sport quote him as saying.

“I said as early as 18 March that, in all my 20 years at the club, there have been many hurdles along the way but none of this magnitude – the Covid-19 pandemic has shown itself to be the most serious of them all.”

Once football begins again in earnest across Europe, surely the hope will be that things can quickly get back to some sort of normality, both on and off the pitch.

A potential second wave of the virus could have huge, and everlasting, consequences with only the most well-managed of clubs likely to be able to survive another massive financial hit.

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