Gautrey pleased with U's finances

Cambridge United chief executive Norman Gautrey is hopeful that the club's positive financial returns for 2008 will further improve in 2009.

The U's recorded losses of �277,795 for the year ending May 2008.

Gautrey told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "We should, in theory, improve on the 2007-2008 loss this year, so we're getting there.

"In this day and age football is always underwritten by one person or another so there will need to be board input."

A loss of �277,000 in 2008 is an improvement of roughly �250,000 from the previous 12 months.

The U's sold their Abbey Stadium home after entering financial difficulties in 2004. And Gautrey has revealed that rent constitutes a large proportion of the yearly loss.

"�200,000 of the loss was made up by the stadium rent, so in true trading terms we lost �77,000, which given the directors' support is achievable," he said.

The club's long-term ambitions are to win promotion back into the Football League and resolve their stadium issues either by buying back the Abbey or by moving elsewhere.

Gautrey has warned fans to expect the club to struggle financially for as long as they remain in non-league football.

"Over the last year we've been to Wembley, we've had a cup run, we've sold some players and we've still lost over a quarter of a million quid," he said.

"We could cut the playing budget, but our aspirations are obviously to get back into the League."