Stephen Pearce on Radio Derby 6pm Tuesday

[RoyMac5]

46 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Yeah he might have done.

How 'highly qualified' is he out of interest?

"Stephen Pearce, who has been part of Derby County’s executive team since joining the club in 2013, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in August 2018.

Pearce is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the ICAEW,

[When you become an ICAEW member, you will be able to call yourself an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and use the globally respected ACA designatory letters after your name.

...This is no ordinary achievement, and your premium qualification sets you apart as a member of a highly influential and respected professional body which connects you to a wider global community of financial experts.]

...having trained with big four accountancy firm KPMG. He also has a Bachelor of Science with Honours degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

Pearce has 18 years of experience within the football industry starting life as an auditor with clients including Manchester City FC and Chelsea FC. Prior to joining Derby, Pearce held the position of Head of Statutory Reporting at Premier League side Chelsea for seven years between October 2006 and September 2013. Pearce also holds a position on the EFL Board as a Championship Club Director, following his appointment in June 2019.

Edited February 24 by RoyMac5

[Ghost of Clough]

4 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Yeah he might have done.

How 'highly qualified' is he out of interest?

It looks like he spent 4 years as an auditor at KPMG, followed by 7 years as Head of Statutory Reporting at Chelsea prior to joining us as CFO. He only stepped up as CEO in 2018 after being on the board from 2017.

John Vicars was COO up until his retirement at the end of the 17/18 season. Sam Rush was CEO up until 2017. David Williams and John Kirkland were also on the board from 2017 to 2019. I wonder how much of a say Pearce actually had when he club opted to change amortisation policy and selling the stadium.

[The Key Club King]

Steve Gibson recently converted £107m worth of debt into shares, as he has done before and was fully expected. If he had not done this and just left the club with the debt and a spiral of problems occured similar to Derby, would Middlesborough's CEO/CFO be blamed? 

Having said that when I went to the loo at 2am whilst having a post night out curry with my mates at the Moghul on Green Lane in 1996, they ran off and left me behind and the owners definitely held me financially responsible for it. 

[G STAR RAM]

8 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

"Stephen Pearce, who has been part of Derby County’s executive team since joining the club in 2013, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in August 2018.

Pearce is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the ICAEW,

[When you become an ICAEW member, you will be able to call yourself an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and use the globally respected ACA designatory letters after your name.

...This is no ordinary achievement, and your premium qualification sets you apart as a member of a highly influential and respected professional body which connects you to a wider global community of financial experts.]

...having trained with big four accountancy firm KPMG. He also has a Bachelor of Science with Honours degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).

Pearce has 18 years of experience within the football industry starting life as an auditor with clients including Manchester City FC and Chelsea FC. Prior to joining Derby, Pearce held the position of Head of Statutory Reporting at Premier League side Chelsea for seven years between October 2006 and September 2013. Pearce also holds a position on the EFL Board as a Championship Club Director, following his appointment in June 2019.

That's good, can start referring to myself as highly qualified on here then.

[G STAR RAM]

5 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

It looks like he spent 4 years as an auditor at KPMG, followed by 7 years as Head of Statutory Reporting at Chelsea prior to joining us as CFO. He only stepped up as CEO in 2018 after being on the board from 2017.

John Vicars was COO up until his retirement at the end of the 17/18 season. Sam Rush was CEO up until 2017. David Williams and John Kirkland were also on the board from 2017 to 2019. I wonder how much of a say Pearce actually had when he club opted to change amortisation policy and selling the stadium.

I know our auditor had definitely been doing his job longer than 4 years, so would have been just as qualified as Pearce for suggesting the change of amortisation. 

Funny that Pearce never suggested it at Chelsea given their record on spending too.

[duncanjwitham]

12 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Funny that Pearce never suggested it at Chelsea given their record on spending too.

To be fair, I don’t think FFP existed when he was at Chelsea, so there was no incentive to fiddle with amortisation models.  Plus the club always claimed that it was the introduction of FRS102, which slightly tweaked reporting requirements, that sparked the change in our method.  Whether people choose to believe that may vary of course…

[LeedsCityRam]

Not entirely sure why but Stephen Pearce was outside the away stand today as we all left at full time. Was talking to couple of folk but fair to say, the days of public enemy number 1 seem long gone. I suspect like a lot, if David Clowes deems him fit to stay at the club I'm content to trust that judgement.

Edited February 24 by LeedsCityRam

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, duncanjwitham said:

To be fair, I don’t think FFP existed when he was at Chelsea, so there was no incentive to fiddle with amortisation models.  Plus the club always claimed that it was the introduction of FRS102, which slightly tweaked reporting requirements, that sparked the change in our method.  Whether people choose to believe that may vary of course…

Correct on both accounts!

[WestKentRam]

The 45% on player wages to turnover stat interests me and what this means for the future, if the standard EFL financial rules apply from next season rather than having to submit and then abide by a business plan that was the case this season different to how other clubs had to operate in the league.

If anyone on here has football financial knowledge, the (lots of) questions I would have are...

1) How does 45% compare to other League One clubs? If we were to stay on L1, would this figure stay the same for next season or be cautiously increased?

2) Is it all too complicated due to transfer fees, loan fees etc having to be factored in next season? If so, why was the 45% figure repeatedly mentioned in the interview as evidence of our good financial management now?

3) If promoted to the Championship, would 45% be the aim? Is the only difference then the TV money as increased income?

4) As we get bigger home gates than all other clubs in L1, does this translate to increased income compared to other clubs that is available to spend on players? Our average home gate this season is 1.29X that of Bolton who have the second largest, and 2.79x the league average.

Going to away matches at clubs with much smaller attendances and worse facilities, it makes me think, surely we must have a much greater income than them? Of course spending money on players is often a road to ruin as we know, but if done properly with the right players who are managed in the right way, given that league position is hugely related to expenditure, should we effectively be 'expected' to get promoted next season if it doesn't happen in this one?

 

[jimtastic56]

24 minutes ago, WestKentRam said:

The 45% on player wages to turnover stat interests me and what this means for the future, if the standard EFL financial rules apply from next season rather than having to submit and then abide by a business plan that was the case this season different to how other clubs had to operate in the league.

If anyone on here has football financial knowledge, the (lots of) questions I would have are...

1) How does 45% compare to other League One clubs? If we were to stay on L1, would this figure stay the same for next season or be cautiously increased?

2) Is it all too complicated due to transfer fees, loan fees etc having to be factored in next season? If so, why was the 45% figure repeatedly mentioned in the interview as evidence of our good financial management now?

3) If promoted to the Championship, would 45% be the aim? Is the only difference then the TV money as increased income?

4) As we get bigger home gates than all other clubs in L1, does this translate to increased income compared to other clubs that is available to spend on players? Our average home gate this season is 1.29X that of Bolton who have the second largest, and 2.79x the league average.

Going to away matches at clubs with much smaller attendances and worse facilities, it makes me think, surely we must have a much greater income than them? Of course spending money on players is often a road to ruin as we know, but if done properly with the right players who are managed in the right way, given that league position is hugely related to expenditure, should we effectively be 'expected' to get promoted next season if it doesn't happen in this one?

 

And I still don’t get , how we are losing £6,000,000 a season ? 

[Crewton]

1 minute ago, jimtastic56 said:

And I still don’t get , how we are losing £6,000,000 a season ? 

I imagine that final payments to football creditors like Arsenal for Bielek and Poznan for Joswiak might be a big chunk of that, though I'm not sure how much of that would have been accounted for in 22/23.

[angieram]

2 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

And I still don’t get , how we are losing £6,000,000 a season ? 

We lost that amount last season - our first since coming out of administration.

What we don't know yet is whether that was due to some exceptional one-off payments, or whether this will be a pattern.

Detailed DCFC accounts for this first year due to be published sometime in March.

[ilkleyram]

13 hours ago, WestKentRam said:

The 45% on player wages to turnover stat interests me and what this means for the future, if the standard EFL financial rules apply from next season rather than having to submit and then abide by a business plan that was the case this season different to how other clubs had to operate in the league.

If anyone on here has football financial knowledge, the (lots of) questions I would have are...

1) How does 45% compare to other League One clubs? If we were to stay on L1, would this figure stay the same for next season or be cautiously increased?

2) Is it all too complicated due to transfer fees, loan fees etc having to be factored in next season? If so, why was the 45% figure repeatedly mentioned in the interview as evidence of our good financial management now?

3) If promoted to the Championship, would 45% be the aim? Is the only difference then the TV money as increased income?

4) As we get bigger home gates than all other clubs in L1, does this translate to increased income compared to other clubs that is available to spend on players? Our average home gate this season is 1.29X that of Bolton who have the second largest, and 2.79x the league average.

Going to away matches at clubs with much smaller attendances and worse facilities, it makes me think, surely we must have a much greater income than them? Of course spending money on players is often a road to ruin as we know, but if done properly with the right players who are managed in the right way, given that league position is hugely related to expenditure, should we effectively be 'expected' to get promoted next season if it doesn't happen in this one?

 

What wasn’t clear was what he actually meant by the 45% stat. Presumably it is 45% of turnover but over what period? And does the 45% refer to all wages (ie including him, the back office staff, the academy coaches and players, the management team etc etc) or is it just the first team squad? 
How then does the 45% figure affect our FFP figures/performance? Hopefully it will put us in good fettle but how many other costs will have an impact on FFP that aren’t included in that 45%? 
The question I’ve never heard asked or answered is what David Clowes actually means by our being run sustainably. If it means ‘within FFP limits’ then that is potentially (at its maximum) at a considerable, allowable loss every year. If he means ‘within our annual income/turnover’ then that’s a considerable reduction in spending from years gone by that will have a significant impact on players salaries and transfer fees in particular. Or is it somewhere in between?  I wouldn’t expect him to define that publicly but setting a budget for transfers and wages every year must mean that they do so internally and the 45% is of major importance. 

[WestKentRam]

On 26/02/2024 at 22:53, ilkleyram said:

What wasn’t clear was what he actually meant by the 45% stat. Presumably it is 45% of turnover but over what period? And does the 45% refer to all wages (ie including him, the back office staff, the academy coaches and players, the management team etc etc) or is it just the first team squad? 
How then does the 45% figure affect our FFP figures/performance? Hopefully it will put us in good fettle but how many other costs will have an impact on FFP that aren’t included in that 45%? 
The question I’ve never heard asked or answered is what David Clowes actually means by our being run sustainably. If it means ‘within FFP limits’ then that is potentially (at its maximum) at a considerable, allowable loss every year. If he means ‘within our annual income/turnover’ then that’s a considerable reduction in spending from years gone by that will have a significant impact on players salaries and transfer fees in particular. Or is it somewhere in between?  I wouldn’t expect him to define that publicly but setting a budget for transfers and wages every year must mean that they do so internally and the 45% is of major importance. 

There are lots of questions raised by the interview such as these, but I'm not sure when if ever we'll get answers, apart from what can be gleaned from the accounts when they are released, but this won't indicate future plans ie for next season.

I'm no financial expert, but reading abut the League One EFL financial rules, SCMP, that are different to those in the Championship, owners can inject any amount of cash into a club and this money can be used on wages, so a rich owner could essentially buy their way out of the league. 

https://www.efl.com/governance/regulations/#heading-part-2-league-one-salary-cost-management-protocol-scmp-guidance-notes

So without knowing how much other clubs with lower attendances are spending in this way, then Derby being a supposedly 'big' club in League One may be misleading.