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Manchester United’s financial situation has been one of the most discussed issues of this summer’s transfer window.
Many fans have been left irritated by the club’s inability to sign more players after the early impressive captures of Joshua Zirkzee and Leny Yoro.
Due to Glazer mismanagement of finances, United have found themselves highly restricted by PSR rules and must sell to buy if they are to sign any more players this summer.
The Red Devils have done much work on transfers like Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte, reaching agreement on personal terms with all three players, but there is the very real possibility they won’t sign any of them due to the club’s inability to sell off players like Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Scott McTominay or Casemiro in an all too familiar story.
There was much gnashing of teeth from rivals when the news broke of a “£40million ($50.7m) loss blamed on Covid-19 during the relevant three-year PSR period has prompted debate on social media about whether United have been treated the same as every other club,” a report by The Athletic reveals.
Everton and Nottingham Forest fans must have been particularly aggravated as they were both charged with breaching the rules last season.
Stefan Borson, a finance expert, exclaimed on talkSPORT earlier this week that United would have failed PSR this season if they hadn’t been given an “exceptional allowance of £40m for Covid in 2022, which no other club had” and on top of this, “it seems they have been given an allowance for around £35m of exceptional costs relating to the share sale to (Sir Jim) Ratcliffe.”
The first concern is the word “exceptional” as it makes it seems this was only for United but the term “is commonly used in clubs’ accounts when documenting certain costs that are not regular. Other teams would use the same term when detailing such losses.”
Another important factor to point out is a lot of club’s haven’t had to make public their finances in the same way United have.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire claims this is due to the fact “United are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and as a result must disclose more information” than a lot of their Premier League rivals.
Another factor to consider is that United make far more money than most of other clubs in world football so will have been compensated accordingly during COVID: “Old Trafford is the biggest club stadium in the United Kingdom and the fall in matchday revenue was significant.”
“Some commercial partners suspended payments or cancelled their contracts owing to the losses inflicted as a result of the pandemic, while United were also unable to go on a pre-season tour in 2021, which they would say had a significant dent in their revenues in 2021-22.”
This was true for most teams but the rest don’t pull in what United do when on pre-season.
Other issues to contend with were that the club’s visitor centres in China were also closed for a significant period of time due to the lockdown.
What’s more, United had to renegotiate their Chevrolet deal and eventually brought in TeamViewer as their front-of-shirt sponsor at a significantly reduced rate, with the deal being negotiated in a pandemic context.
Swiss Ramble, the football finance blogger, analysed United’s losses between 2020-2022 and “he estimated United’s £247 million Covid-inflicted losses reflected a £138 million hit to their matchday revenue, an £87 million hit to their commercial revenues and a £22 million fall in their broadcast income.”
Other clubs such as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur also surpassed £100 million in Covid losses but once again, it is opaque as most clubs do not need to be so public about their finances.
Many applied for Agreed Upon Procedure (AUP) statements, which in essence, are private submissions made from clubs to the Premier League, which resulted in the league auditing the financial losses of the clubs during COVID.
However, because the AUPs are private, it is difficult to know the true cost clubs attributed to the pandemic and it is unknown if United did in fact submit one, just like we do not know what other Premier League clubs did.
Importantly, Kieran Maguire is certain United have done nothing wrong and summed up that there was no corruption from the Premier League and the Red Devils’ were given more allowances due to the huge nature of income they generate.
3: Club unable to fulfil sponsorship partner obligations in summer 2021
4: Broadcaster rebates PL & UEFA.Because #MUFC are listed in NY has to disclose more information than other clubs, many of whom have COVID claims but not shown in accounts
Conclusion: No corruption from PL
— Kieran Maguire (@KieranMaguire) August 7, 2024
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