Man Utd have posted their latest financial figures taking in final quarter of the financial year; Club's losses have risen by £23m on previous year; Player wages have risen to £384.2m, the highest in Premier League history, surpassing previous mark set by Man City
Thursday 22 September 2022 17:40, UK
Manchester United have announced a net loss of £115.5m for the 2021/22 season even though revenues rose by 18 per cent to £583m.
Figures released incorporating the final quarter of their financial year, which ended in June, showed losses rose by £23m on the previous year.
The club's net debt also went up, from £419.5m in 2021 to £514.9m this year, an increase of more than 22 per cent.
United put that rise of £95.4m primarily down to £64.6m of unrealised foreign exchange losses on the retranslation of borrowings in United States dollars. Revenue rose by £89.1m.
"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," said chief financial officer Cliff Baty.
"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."
Our club's core mission is to win football matches and entertain our fans.
As a result of the signings last summer of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane wages leapt by 19.1 per cent, a rise of £61.6m to £384.2m.
That figure is the highest in Premier League history, surpassing the previous mark set by Manchester City (£355m).
"Our club's core mission is to win football matches and entertain our fans," said chief executive Richard Arnold.
"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."
Pay-offs to managers Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, sacked in November, and Ralf Rangnick, who did not take up a two-year consultancy role at the end of the season having initially assumed interim charge, and their associated coaching staff, amounted to £24.7m.
The club forecast total revenue for the 2022/23 period to be between £580m and £600m and is targeting adjusted core profit between £100m to £110m.
That is despite the team's failure to qualify for the Champions League this season.
The Manchester United Supporters' Trust claims the Glazer family are rewarding failure at Old Trafford after sharing in a £33.6m dividend paid out despite the club announcing a loss of £115.5m.
"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 decades," said a MUST statement.
"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."
