(Football news) Despite revenues rising by 8 per cent to £583m in the 2021/22 season, Manchester United have announced a loss of £115.5m, a £23m increase since the year before. Moreover, the Red Devils’ player wages have increased to £384.2m, the highest in the Premier League, surpassing the previous record set by Manchester City. To make matters worse, the club debt, which was £419.5m in 2021 has risen to £514.9m this year, an increase by 22%.
Manchester United’s Chief Financial Officer Cliff Baty said “Our financial results for fiscal 2022 reflect a recovery from the pandemic, a full return of fans and new commercial partnerships offset by increased investment in the playing squad. Our results have been adversely affected by the absence of a summer tour in July 2021, material exceptional and increased utility costs, and the impact of the weakening of sterling on our non-cash finance costs." With signings such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho, Manchester United’s player wage bill increased by £61.6m to £384.2m, surpassing Manchester City’s record of £355m.
Chief Executive Richard Arnold said “Our club's core mission is to win football matches and entertain our fans. Since our last earnings report, we have strengthened our men's first-team squad, completed a successful summer tour, and established a foundation to build from in the early stages of the 2022/23 season under our new manager Erik ten Hag. We have also continued to develop our women's team with an aim of reinforcing our position among the leading clubs in the Women's Super League. While there is a lot more work to do, everyone at the club is aligned on a clear strategy to deliver sustained success on the pitch and a sustainable economic model off it, to the mutual benefit of fans, shareholders, and other stakeholders."
Despite the amount of money spent during the 2021/22 season, Manchester United finished a disappointing 7th, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked in November while interim manager Ralf Rangnick, who was set to take up a consultancy role for a period of two years has left for a role as Austria’s national team manager. The total payoff for the sacking and appointment during the 21/22 season amounted to £24.7m. The Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) have accused the Glazers of taking money from the club, amounting to £33.6m despite the club announcing a loss of £115.5m.
A statement released by MUST said “Today's financial results from United cover a period when the club failed on the pitch, finishing sixth in the Premier League with our worst points tally in decade. Despite that, the results confirm that the owners were the only ones in the Premier League to pay themselves a dividend last year. There is nothing wrong in principle with companies paying dividends to owners but there should be no rewards for failure and that is what we see here.
“"At a football club we believe dividends should only be paid when there is both financial success and success on the field. Via the Fans Advisory Board and the Fans Forum, MUST representatives will now be calling for an urgent review of the club dividend policy to ensure that the rewards for failure we see revealed today are not repeated. Overall, this set of results reinforces our view that the club is in dire need of new capital investment and the proposed stadium redevelopment must be funded through new issuance of shares to bring new funds into the club and not via more debt which would place a further drain on club finances."
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