Gillingham’s end-of-season accounts up to May 31, 2023 during first year back in League 2, the Galinsons takeover and sale of Priestfield Stadium

Gillingham’s latest accounts reveal a pre-tax loss of over £2m during a year of major change for the club - but there's plenty to be positive about.

The recently released annual accounts cover the 2022/23 season, a year which saw the Galinsons take over a majority control of the club, saving the Gills from relegation into non-league and a fate which could have been a whole lot worse.

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During the takeover, Priestfield Stadium was sold to GFC Holdings - the holding company of the football club - for £17.46m. There was a tax credit of around £2.7m, which turned the year's loss into a £600k profit.

The Galinsons - husband and wife Brad and Shannon - injected £1m into the business through an issue of shares while also paying off some of the club’s long-term debts and funding some key additions in the January transfer window.

On the pitch, then-manager Neil Harris managed to gel those January additions quickly, as the team rose from the foot of League 2 and eventually into a comfortable mid-table position by the end of the season.

The accounts show that a large chunk of the £1.8m owed to Three Directors Ltd - a company that includes former chairman and now minority owner Paul Scally, former director Michael Quarrington and ex-vice chairman Michael Anderson - had been paid. That had been reduced to £600,000.

A loan taken out by the club from the EFL to see them through the Covid crisis, payable in instalments, had been reduced to £209,166. The club had in the previous year also benefited from government grants amounting to close to £700,000, which came about as clubs struggled without fans at games during various lockdowns.

Capital repayments in the year amounted to just over £1.5m.

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