The 121st Aberdeen Football Club Annual General Meeting took place on Monday 9th December 2024 at Pittodrie Stadium in the Richard Donald Stand.

In attendance at the top table were Dimitrios Efstathiou, Kevin MacIver, Alan Burrows, Dave Cormack, Zoe Ogilvie, Stewart Milne, Willie Garner, Steven Gunn and Manager Jimmy Thelin.

RedTV subscribers can watch a press conference with Chief Executive Alan Burrows, which was held after the AGM had concluded, by clicking here.

The Chairman gave the following update to shareholders:

“In May 2019 we published a clear vision and strategy for the Club. At its core it’s driven by our desire to improve our income, based around compelling fan engagement and fan experience initiatives, significantly increased commercial income, alongside playing attacking and entertaining football where we aspire to play in Europe every season and give ourselves every chance of winning silverware. This includes the implementation of a player trading strategy and model, which, although risky, if successful, allows the Club to invest much more in delivering football success than from regular operating income alone, such as season ticket and hospitality sales.

“It’s three years since COVID hit the Club for £10 million cash hole. During that time, while we’ve had too much disruption on the football management side, we managed to reach the Group Stages in Europe for the first time in 15 years, we are regularly playing at Hampden in the cups again, our player trading model is showing positive signs, and last year’s results delivered a 49% increase in turnover and positive EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax and Depreciation) of £847k.

“In our pursuit of playing attacking and entertaining football, after months of pursuing Jimmy Thelin, he joined the Club in June. Jimmy being Jimmy, he won’t thank me for saying this. He’s not only an excellent manager, coach and leader, but Jimmy is an even better human being. His approach of everyone being in it together at our Club, aligned with our fan engagement and fan experience initiatives, along with a good start to the season, has led to some incredible sell-out atmospheres at Pittodrie. The best run of home attendances since 1948 and 4 home sell outs in a row, which has never before been achieved.

“Regarding the stadium situation.  Aberdeen City Council approached the Club a few years back about building a new community stadium as part of their ambitious beachfront masterplan, for which independent economists projected a £1 billion upside for the City of Aberdeen as a result of the Club being the anchor tenant. Between COVID construction inflation, a change in council leadership and their now significantly reduced plans for beachfront investment, along with highly depressed land values in the northeast, the Club needs a period of time to re evaluate its options.

“Alan Burrows has now been our Chief Executive for 21 months. Alan is a capable and driven leader who has his team fully focused on key initiatives. He’s overseen the significant growth in season tickets and AberDNA initiative, for which he’ll give you an update in a few minutes. Alan’s knowledge of, and experience in, Scottish football, is invaluable to us as a Club. As such my role has now become that of non-executive chairman, where, along with the other directors, we are there to provide support to Alan and his leadership team, as they are tasked with delivering on the Club’s vision and strategy, based on clear on and off the field performance goals and outcomes agreed by the Board.”

Chief Executive Alan Burrows also gave the following update:

“We announced and published our financial results, together with the invitation to tonight’s AGM on 23 November, having not lost a league game since March. Our new manager Jimmy Thelin had made the best start of any Aberdeen FC manager ever, recorded the second best run of results in the club’s history and were joint top of the table.

“In all the interview and soundbites during the summer, we made a big point of emphasising, in all interviews we gave throughout the summer, that the appointment of Jimmy was for the long-term.

“He was in post to anchor the club for many years, and the key word was, and still is, patience. The fact we were able to make such an incredible start doesn’t detract from the big picture. We are still being humble, we are still taking it one game at a time, and we still haven’t lost sight of the fact that to get to where we want to be, and to consistently achieve our objectives, it is going to take time and a collective pull from everyone who loves AFC. Nothing has changed on that front.

“Looking back to the previous year – the 2023/24 campaign wasn’t without its challenges. We finished seventh in the Scottish Premiership and had to change managers mid-season, which is not where any club ever wants to be, certainly not a club like Aberdeen with the history behind us, and with the focus, the demands and the expectations in front of us.

“Barry Robson moved on after giving outstanding service to Aberdeen Football Club over many years as a player, coach and manager. He retains the respect and thanks of everyone at the Club, as does Peter Leven, who did a brilliant job steering the club to safety and allowing us the time and space to ensure we completed a thorough managerial search.

“However, there were also some things to be pleased about when we look back over the year. On the pitch, we played in European Group Stage football for the first time in fifteen years and gave a fairly good account ourselves. The highlight was obviously beating Eintracht Frankfurt at Pittodrie, but we came away from that Group more than a little frustrated at not progressing to the knockout stages, given how each of the games had gone.

“We also reached the League Cup Final and only penalty kicks prevented us from being in the Scottish Cup Final. That said, we are aware that there can only be a modicum of comfort taken from “near misses”, and only winning trophies will be a true key measurement for this football club.

“Off the pitch, our record turnover was made up by record commercial and retail sales, record season ticket numbers, and record AberDNA memberships. The hard work on establishing and/or growing these key line items was already well underway long before I joined the club in February of 2023, so I must pay tribute to both current and former officers of both the Board and club for their efforts.

“However, with renewed focus and, crucially, defined ownership of each of these projects, we have managed to make significant progress on all fronts during the year, and that’s testament to the hard work, dedication, and ingenuity of our team.

“I’d like to take this moment to thank every member of staff at Aberdeen Football Club for their unwavering commitment, during what was an extremely congested season.

“It’s easy to forget that we played 54 men’s first team matches during the campaign, that’s four more than Celtic for example, who as you can imagine have a vastly more resourced infrastructure to cope with that volume of games. We asked our staff to go to the well over and over, and they delivered for us big time.

“At the outset of the year, we committed to make further progress on our four strategic pillars.

“They will, no doubt, be well-known to shareholders in the room, but for clarity, these are the growing the fanbase and attendances at Pittodrie, increasing the turnover, to improve and enhance our facilities and to further invest in our player trading model.

“I am proud to report that we made positive progress on all those areas.

“I mentioned earlier that we recorded record season ticket sales during the year, exceeding 10,000 for the first time ever during a summer sales window. In fact, we landed at just over 11,000 by the end of 2023 and that doesn’t include corporate seasonals, which would take the overall number closer to 12,000.

“We were also able to grow the turnover by over £8m to £23.6m – a record not only for Aberdeen FC, but to date the highest of any club in Scotland outside Rangers and Celtic. That was largely due to our participation in the UEFA Conference League, but in no small part to some of those initiatives I previously listed.

“However, things like the record-breaking Northern Lights kit aided us in reaching record retail numbers. Robbie Hedderman, the Commercial Director appointed during the year, did a brilliant job with his team in capitalising on our European run to post record commercial revenues, including selling out every single Corporate Box, the first time that’s happened in decades.

“We retain strong relationships with some of our partnerships and the commitment of our main shirt sponsor, TEXO, has been key. They are, in many ways, the quintessential partner for any football club. I would also like to thank the likes of Ram Tubulars, TAQA, Boskalis, GAC, Katoni and Adidas for their support during 2023/24, whilst also welcoming EIS Waste, John Lawrie Metals, Fowler McKenzie, Central Coaches, Petersen’s and others who have joined our Partnerships portfolio over the period.

“In terms of our facilities – we had to carry out a number of significant improvements to Pittodrie during the year, including investing in new three-sided LED perimeter boards, that have allowed us to increase advertising revenue, new strip scoreboards at the back of the South Stand, a new access control system, new expanded dugouts, pitch-surrounding synthetic turf, upgraded floodlights and the replacement of the Legends Lounge. The total value of these capital projects was in excess of £500,000.

“And finally, on or player trading model, although this hit below our targets for the year, the majority of that was down to timing. Ross McCrorie’s move to Bristol City was finalised a few days prior to the Year End for 22/23, and was included in last year’s numbers and similarly, in the summer gone past, Bojan Miovski’s move to La Liga came narrowly after year end and will be reflected in the 24/25 annual accounts reported this time next year.

“We were, however, still able to show a seven-figure return on players, the bulk of which was made up of Ylber Ramadani’s move to Serie A.

“Overall, our financial performance has been robust, with the record turnover up 49% from the previous year, with our EBITDA a positive £847,000 and with wages to turnover sitting at a healthy 54%.

“However, as CEO I am very aware of our responsibilities to continue to grow the operational income. We spend far more, predominately within the football department to try and keep the team competitive within the Scottish Premiership, than we generate from the standard lines of income. We balance that with a strategy around player development and trading.

“Running a player trading strategy isn’t easy and indeed, its cyclable nature – demonstrated so evidently this year – often relies on the support of investors to underpin it. To that end, I would like to place on record here at the AGM my thanks to Aberdeen FC’s investors for their continued support in this area, allowing us to take such an aggressive approach.

“Looking ahead, we have numerous areas of focus for 24/25 and beyond.

“On the footballing side – one of the key areas of emphasis will be improving the productivity levels of our Elite Men’s Academy. The graphic doing the rounds on social media recently, highlighting a lack of minutes for young Scottish players across the Scottish Premiership, probably won’t have escaped your attention.

“We spend approximately £2.2m per year gross on our Academy, between direct and associated costs. Across the next ten years, that’s around £22m in today’s money. Whilst we were delighted to win the CAS under 18s league, under 16s league and get to the SFA Youth Cup Final during 2023/24, the only KPI that matters to us as a club is how many youngsters progress from our Academy into and playing regularly for the first team. It is fair to say that we, together with a lot of other clubs in Scotland, have regressed on that front across the last decade.

“Our Director of Football Steven Gunn will devote a significant portion of his time to ensuring we are getting the best value for money from our significant investment. We have had some significant successes – Scott McKenna and Calvin Ramsay being the two most obvious examples – when it relates to our model. However, fundamentally, we need more and more young Aberdeen boys do be chapping loudly on Jimmy’s door in the short and medium term if we are to realise our aims and objectives.

“To assist Steven and to provide him the bandwidth to carry that out, you will have seen from our summer appointments that together with our manager, we have significantly invested in our support staff within the football department.

“Jimmy himself is playing a significant role not just as manager of the first team but giving us the benefit of his wealth of his significant experience with Jönköpings Södra and Elfsborg, where he was pivotal in the growth of the whole football department, not just the first-team squad.

“Christer Persson and Emir Bajrami joined the club to not only work with Peter Leven to support Jimmy, but also to take a greater technical role in the development of our players. We have also enlisted Spaniard Franscesc Rubio at Ekkono Soccer Services, who is providing us with on-going technical expertise with a specific focus on individual player development and implementation of the game model at all levels.

“Furthermore, we have one or two exciting appointments to announce soon that will further boost the expertise within the football department.

“All of these, and the continued significant investment in our first team are, ultimately, designed to not to drive short-term success to the first team by way of better players, but also long-term sustainability through the model. We believe we are on the right path.

“We are also committed to growing our Women’s team. During the 2023/24 season, the club launched the Girls Academy which has now been running for almost one-year. This is part of our drive to raise standards and provide the best platform and pathway for young girls in the Northeast of Scotland to have a successful career in football.

“We recently appointed Scott Booth, a well-known face to most of the AFC family, to lead our senior women’s team. Scott has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the Scottish Women’s game, having been a multi-time league winner and having coached at the top level in England. We continue to work with Scott to drive standards, whilst also working with our colleagues across Scotland to grow the game more broadly. We are committed to that but have to ensure we do so in a sustainable way, so the team and the game is secure for the long term.

“Off the pitch, we are focused on further improving our facilities. We have been and are working on projects to improve and modernise Pittodrie, including across our hospitality lounges with the support of partners such as Frasers of Ellon, Fierce Beer and Sonomatics. Our strategic report stated that we will remain at this famous ground for the short to medium term, and that is unlikely to come as a huge surprise, as that was always likely to be the timescale given some of the economic challenges in the area.

“However, within that, we want to build on some of the improvements we’ve already carried out in 2023/24 for this season and beyond. We have invested significantly in the matchday experience, and I hope you have all enjoyed some of the colour and the noise that has been generated so far this campaign. It has certainly got people talking.

“But we know we need to continue to improve on all aspects of that when it comes to the stadium itself, and we will shortly complete an improvement plan that we hope will further enhance the gameday look and feel but, crucially, also increase revenues for the club.

“In conclusion, as we close another year in our club’s history, I am more optimistic than ever about the future. With the strong foundation we have built together, we are well placed, and should challenge ourselves hard for, even greater success.”