BREAKING NEWS: Arsenal take out a £120m loan through Bank of England’s Covid scheme to help them cope with the impact of the pandemic – despite splashing out £45m on one player in October and paying Mesut Ozil £350k-a-week but not playing him
- Arsenal announced they have borrowed £120million from the Bank of England
- The club say it will help them manage the impact of revenue losses from Covid
- The Gunners took advantage of the Covid Corporate Financing Facility scheme
Arsenal have taken out a £120million loan from the Bank of England to help maintain its finances in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The club revealed it had met the criteria for the Covid Corporate Financing Facility scheme, which has been set up to support businesses throughout the period of disruption caused by the virus.
The scheme provides short-term financial assistance to large companies with a high credit rating that make a sizeable contribution to the UK economy.
Arsenal have borrowed £120m from the Bank of England’s Covid Financing Facility scheme
The short-term loan, which is repayable in May 2021, has been a method of helping clubs ease the burden on their finances – with north London neighbours Tottenham using it the scheme to borrow £175m last summer.
The CCCF was launched on March 17 last year by the bank, which sees the scheme as a way to help companies bridge disruption to their cash flows.
The scheme is thought to have loaned used by around 100 companies, including EasyJet, Marks & Spencers and Greggs.
Arsenal spent £45m on Thomas Partey last year and still pay outcast Mesut Ozil £350k-a-week
Last summer Arsenal spent nearly £80m on transfers – including £45m on midfielder Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid, £23m for the signature of Lille defender Gabriel Magalhaes and £7.2m on Pablo Mari.
The club made use of free transfers to land Cedric Soares from Southampton and Willian from Arsenal, while also offloading goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa for £20m.
The Gunners still have a number of big money earners on their books, including outcast Mesut Ozil – who is on £350,000 a week despite being left out of Mikel Arteta’s Premier League and Europa League squads.
The German has not featured once this season, with his last game for the Gunners coming before the Premier League restart during the last lockdown.
Arsenal are willing to sell the former Real Madrid star this month but only if the deal was right for the club.
