Cardiff City made a loss of £35 in the last financial year

Accounts show that since the reporting period at the end of last season, Cardiff have also received an additional £19.5m that does not require repayment. The source of the £19.5 million has not been announced.

Cardiff’s revenues increased from £2.6m to £25.8m, but the wage bill increased to £29.1m over last season – although accounts confirm most of the squad guaranteed relegation terms.

The total loss of £35.1m represents a jump of £23m, although last year’s finances were boosted by the sale of a proportion of any successful damages obtained in the lawsuit with French club Nantes over the death of Argentine striker Emiliano Sala.

Operating losses remained relatively unchanged at £28.1 million.

In the notes accompanying the accounts, the club stated that relegation from the Championship meant they faced the “immediate challenge” of an “incredibly significant reduction in turnover and actions that necessarily had to be taken around the club’s cost base to plug this gap”.

This included pausing development of the club’s proposed new training base until its return to the Second Division, as well as utilizing the club’s academy talent as part of the team’s restructuring.

This has proven successful so far as new manager Brian Barry-Murphy has guided them to a healthy position at the top of League One.