Rugby: a turnover of £167m and net loss of £27.1m for the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in 2019-20

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) posted a turnover of £167m (€184.8m) for the 2019-20 financial year, down 22% compared with 2018-19 (£213.2m/€237.8m), announced the English body in its Annual Report 2019-20 published on 29/10/2020. Operating loss for 2019-20 was £10.8m (versus a profit of £14.9m in 2018-19) while net loss was £27.1m (€30m versus a profit of £3.9m the previous financial year).

"Despite lost revenues, mostly driven by lost broadcast, ticketing, hospitality and conferences and events revenues, the operating loss for the year was slightly better than budget -£10.8m (€11.9m) compared to a budgeted loss of £11.5m. A great deal of work was done in the 2018-19 financial year across the organisation to keep a tight control of costs providing a good position to rein in costs as soon as Covid-19 hit," explained the body which invested £94.7m (€104.8m) in rugby (£100.5m in 2018-19) including £66.4m (€73.5m) for professional rugby and £28.3m (€31.3m) for amateur rugby in 2019-20.

"The long-term financial challenges of Coronavirus are significant for the entire economy. The RFU…