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West Bromwich Albion have confirmed they have agreed a £20m loan from US investment group MSD Holdings.
The money, taken out over four years with the group’s UK holding company, will be used to finance the club’s “general business operations”.
Albion are currently 14th in the Championship, three points outside the play-off places.
This season is their last one covered by parachute payments after relegation from the Premier League in 2020-21.
Because Albion went down the season after winning promotion to the top flight in 2019-20, the payments, worth tens of millions of pounds, are made for two years, rather than three.
The news of the deal comes days after the club assured fans a £4.95m loan to chairman Guochuan Lai will be repaid by the end of the year.
The money, originally due to be repaid in September along with £50,000 interest, was lent to Lai to help another of his companies through the Covid crisis.
With Baggies group director Xu Ke announcing the MSD loan will “only be spent on the purposes of the football club”, attention will inevitably shift to how much new head coach Carlos Corberan will have to strengthen his squad next month for their promotion push.
The Spaniard told the media last week he was “happy” with his squad and would “see if we can strengthen” in January.
MSD Holdings – a familiar name to football fans
West Brom are the latest club to borrow money from the US investment group who have dealings with a number of Premiership and Championship sides.
These have included Southampton, Burnley and Derby County, who went into administration in September 2021 and were relegated to League One, owing MSD £15m.
The Baggies’ deal is with the financing group’s UK holding company, registered in Cardiff.
