Last season saw them achieve their highest ever league position and in doing so they qualified for the Europa League, eventually being knocked out by Italian side Roma last month.

Player sales also played a contributing factor with big fees for the likes of Alex Mac Allister (to Liverpool), Yves Bissouma (to Tottenham) and Marco Cucurella (to Chelsea).

Manager Graham Potter's departure to Chelsea also saw a significant compensation fee.

Deputy chairman and chief executive Paul Barber said, "These accounts will of course catch the eye, because of the headline number. In a season when we made history on the pitch we took a huge step forward in terms of the club’s long-held aim of becoming more sustainable and less reliant on Tony Bloom’s incredibly generous levels of investment.

“For the first time since Tony made his first interest free loan to the club back in 2007 we have been able to make a substantial repayment to him reducing the loan balance from £406.5m to £373.3m.

“Our profitability also means we can further improve our infrastructure with a significant multi-million pound investment in a new external fan zone which, subject to planning, will be completed in summer 2024.

“We now have a very solid platform to continue to make significant progress on the pitch, by investing in our squad, and off the pitch by making the match day experience even more enjoyable for our supporters, all of which we believe will help us to continue to grow.

“The dream is to be regularly challenging for a European place and for silverware. We are very proud of Roberto, the work he and his staff have done, and of course the performance levels of our squad."

Brighton's commercial success is in stark contrast to a number of other clubs who have posted significant losses in their latest accounts.