Hibernian F.C annual report year ending June 2024

The second largest loss in Scotland in 2024

It’s been a tumultuous few years for Hibernian Football Club, largely overpaying for an underperforming squad. In their most recent set of results, for the period ending June 2024, there was some positivity amongst the overriding negativities. Mainly in the form of money they brought into the club - Hibs had their highest ever revenue (£15.87m). However, the year also had their highest ever staff wages (£12.7m) and highest ever operating loss (£9.2m). It now costs £24m a year for Hibs to operate.

After three-and-a-half years at Easter Road, Chief executive Ben Kensell left his position as Hibs chief executive - 3 weeks before these results were announced, and a year after he predicted these financial results would be “healthy”. His departure will come as no surprise to Hibs fans, and this article will analyse Hibs’ accounts and provide a comparison to clubs of a similar size – namely Aberdeen and Hearts.

Video: 1 year ago, Ben Kensell predicted these results would be healthy. They were not. He has since left the club.

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MONEY SQUANDERERD IN WAGES AND TRANSFERS

Hibs finished a very disappointing 8th in the league, the underachievement can be encapsulated by the fact that Hibs’ wage bill was more than the COMBINED wage bill of three teams that finished in the top 6 ahead of them Kilmarnock, St. Mirren and Dundee. That’s a wage to turnover ratio of over 80%, which is by no means the worst in the league – for example Ross County spend more than 100% of their revenue on wages. But it’s undoubtedly an unhealthy place to be in where for every £100 Hibs can generate, £80 of it is already spent on paying staff wages, predominately on an underachieving playing squad that delivered an 8th place finish and a subsequent £7.2m financial loss. Hibs wage bill is again £4m smaller than Hearts’, but Hearts turnover is £4m greater than that of the Hibees.

It wasn’t just a poor recruitment strategy and high wages that contributed to a damaging set of results for Hibs, as a frequent change in manager comes at a cost. Hibs sacked both Lee Johnson and Nick Montgomery in this financial year – at a