Today the club issued a statement that Arsenal have qualified for a £120 million loan through this facility to partially assist in managing the impacts of the revenue losses attributable to the pandemic.
The message says:
“As we continue to work through the implications of the global pandemic on our finances, we can confirm today that the club has met the criteria set by the Bank of England for the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).
As a result, we are taking a short-term £120 million loan through this facility to partially assist in managing the impacts of the revenue losses attributable to the pandemic. This is a similar approach to that taken by a wide variety of major organisations across many industries including sport, and is repayable in May 2021.
The CCFF is designed to provide short-term finance at commercial rates during the pandemic to companies that have strong investment ratings and which make significant contributions to the British economy.”
Arsenal, Club to receive Bank of England COVID loan
Certainly this will be something that many are keeping eyes on and trying to understand. People like @SwissRamble on Twitter are great sources of knowledge when it comes to this. and is someone who usually does a great job breaking down what this means.
If I had to guess, this is not a loan that suddenly puts £120 million into the transfer budget the way many supporter’s minds will have jumped. It seems much more likely that this loan comes with similar tiding as previous Covid relief efforts the club made in restructuring their debts.
The statement even references the previous loan and restructuring provided by KSE in mid-2020.
“The CCFF is in addition to the loan provided by our owners Kroenke, Sports & Entertainment that enabled us to refinance the debt on Emirates Stadium in August last year.”
All help during times like this, especially without fans in the stadium offering match day revenue, is a good thing for the club. At the very least, it allows Arsenal the freedom to keep their transfer funds and money used for playing staff going toward the playing staff. If you want to take the optimistic view that these funds will also allow for some reshuffling of cash that could be used on transfers this window you could, however, it does feel optimistic.
In the statement, it mentions that this loan is repayable in May 2021, which is in fact a short timeline. What I cannot tell at the moment is if this means that the full amount must be repaid at that time or if that is when repayment begins in the form of installments.
Will keep and eye out and look to update!
Update: Arsenal will have the full £120m amount due in May (2021).
Gunner Thoughts 