Manchester United post £83 million annual loss
Manchester United have announced an astronomical overall loss of £83.64 million in the 12 months to 30th June 2010.
Despite reporting a group operating profit of a record £100.8 million, interest payments and reduced revenues from player sales have seen the club make a significant loss.
The club’s owners, the Glazer family, took control of the Red Devils in 2005, much to the dismay of many of the supporters, who were concerned over future debt repayments. Various high-profile supporter protests have taken place over the past five years, but the American family have never shown any intention of selling.
These latest financial reports will only add to the huge concerns over the Glazer family’s ownership of the Premier League club.
Saddled with huge debts and struggling with interest payments, the future is looking increasingly bleak for United, who currently have debts of over £520 million.
From the £83 million loss recorded over the past year, £40 million of that was accountable to interest payments, while there was also a significant one-off cost for the £504 million bond issued back in January.
Last year, the club recorded a profit of £48 million, but this was largely down to the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Real Madrid for a world-record transfer fee of £80 million.
However, there have been no player sales of that scale this season, while United have also struggled to sell as many season tickets as they initially hoped with ticket prices rising on an annual basis. Also, a proportion of the club’s supporters have refrained from buying official merchandise for some time now – opting instead to buy unofficial green and gold scarves to show their disapproval with the Glazer family’s ownership.
Manchester United supporters will now eagerly await the family’s response to these latest figures – as well as that of veteran manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who has consistently shown his support for the disliked Americans.
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