Fleetwood Town knocked Arsenal out on penalties, and the accounts filed behind that result show a club carrying £46m of net liabilities on £7.5m of turnover, with almost £49.2m of it owed to companies connected to its own ownership.

Elsewhere, three very different financial questions remain unresolved: a £2m managerial compensation claim at Forest Green, overdue parent-company accounts at Burnley, and a stalled ownership transfer at Gateshead.

Fleetwood Town Beat Arsenal. Their Accounts Show £49m Owed to Connected Companies

Fleetwood knocked Arsenal out on penalties on 28 October. Their latest accounts record net liabilities of £46,046,741 on turnover of £7.5m, up from £5.8m, with a loss after taxation of £5.9m and an average attendance of 2,995.

Almost all of the liability is owed inside the group. Note 13 discloses £49,229,387 due to related parties, up from £42,912,432 the year before: £31.5m to JRP Management Services, £11.1m to Ruby Gas, £6.2m to Commercial Power and smaller balances elsewhere. Against that sits £1,000 of combined share capital and share premium.

If the entire £49.2m related-party balance were converted into equity, with no other balance-sheet changes, Fleetwood's reported net liabilities would become approximately £3.2m of net assets. That illustrates how heavily the balance sheet depends on the legal and accounting treatment of funding from connected companies. It does not establish the club's cash position or its ability to meet obligations as they fall due.

The accounts also record advances to connected companies and impairment provisions against related-party balances, including £1.57m attributed to Power Grade Limited. The auditors gave an unmodified opinion while drawing attention to a material uncertainty over going concern.

Forest Green Seek £2m From Peterborough and Robbie Savage Over Manager's Departure

Dale Vince announced on Sky Sports News on 30 October that Forest Green had begun legal action against Peterborough United and Robbie Savage, seeking £2m — the figure he says was the buyout clause in Savage's contract.

Set against Forest Green's own accounts, that is not a token sum. The 2025 figures record turnover of £7.248m and a pre-tax loss of £2,993,225, so the claim represents 27.6% of a full year's revenue and 66.8% of the annual loss.

On 7 October, Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony said the club had paid what he described as a nominal release fee. On 30 October, Vince announced the £2m claim relating to a contractual buyout provision. The amount of the reported payment, the terms of Savage's release and the basis of the subsequent claim have not been publicly disclosed.

Who Is Velocity Capital? The Company That Controls Burnley and Owes It £81m

Velocity Capital (UK) Holdings holds 75% or more of Burnley FC Holdings and owed it £80.986m at the last audited balance sheet date. Incorporated in March 2023, it has never filed annual accounts, although it has maintained its confirmation statements and registered financing arrangements.

Its first compulsory strike-off proceedings were discontinued in March 2025. A second notice, dated 3 November 2026, now appears on the register, and ALK Capital says it is working to complete the overdue filings.

The register also dates the structure. Burnley FC Holdings' PSC register records Velocity as notified on 6 October 2023, the same day Calder Vale Holdings — which had held the club since December 2020 — ceased to be a person with significant control. The Independent Football Regulator has requested information from the club in the week its licensing window opened.

Gateshead's Rescue Is Threatened by a Share Deal Signed 19 Months Ago

Flacks Group has lent Gateshead the money to pay September's wages and agreed to acquire approximately 90% of the shares for no purchase consideration. In its open letter of 29 October it described the people it struck that deal with as "who we believe to be the Club's current owners."

The public ownership records are not straightforward. A confirmation statement filed on 2 October lists Stephen Paylor with 4,150,530 shares and Mark Nellist with none, while the PSC register continues to identify Nellist in the 50–75% control band.

Flacks says it cannot complete without written confirmation that Shoreline Sports relinquishes any ownership claim arising from an agreement signed on 26 March 2025. Shoreline has declined, and completion now depends on three things: shareholder authority, the Shoreline dispute, and regulatory approval.

Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or: The Four Loan Spells That Made Him

Kane became the fifth English winner of the Ballon d'Or on 26 October, after Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton, Kevin Keegan and Michael Owen.

Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City gave him the senior minutes. Tottenham kept the registration, the contract and the long-term economic value — the ordinary arrangement, and the reason the clubs that carry the early development risk are rarely the ones who benefit from what follows.

No Entry This Week. It Returns on Friday, in Italy

The Index is on the road. Friday brings an Italian Pyramid special built around a Serie D fixture in Mestre, on the mainland across the lagoon from Venice — the fourth tier of Italian football and the lowest division still organised nationally, with everything beneath it running regionally.

Same method, different country: the plain burger, the named premium lager, the price of getting in, and the accounts behind the club serving them.

This week's investigations show how much can be established from public records, and where their limits begin. Fleetwood's accounts disclose the scale of its related-party funding in full. At Burnley, the controlling company's accounts remain unfiled. At Gateshead, the public ownership records leave important questions unanswered. And Forest Green's dispute turns on contractual terms that have not been published at all.

Which club's finances should we investigate next? Reply to this email with the club and the question you want answered. We're particularly interested in ownership changes, unexplained funding, stadium deals and transactions that have received little scrutiny.