Skip to main content

Manchester United now first UK football club to earn £500m in a year

English giants Manchester United have recorded record revenues of £515.3m (about N2.319 trillion) for the 2016 financial year, becoming the first UK football club to do so.

In a year when it won the FA Cup, the Old Trafford club also signed 14 sponsorship deals, and saw commercial, matchday and TV revenues all rise. The club is now predicting 2017 revenues of up to £540m, even though it is not in the Champions League this season.

Under new boss Jose Mourinho they are currently third in the Premier League. The club’s accounts up until June 30 confirm that the Premier League club was the first British team to break the half-billion mark. The figure is short of the €679m (about £570m or N2.565 trillion) revenue revealed in July by Spanish giants FC Barcelona.

“Our record fiscal 2016 financial performance reflects the continued underlying strength of the business and the club is on target to achieve record revenues in 2017. “This is even without a contribution from the Champions League,” said executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

“This strong financial performance has enabled us to invest in our squad, team management and facilities to position us to challenge for, and win, trophies in the coming years.’’ The big figures for Manchester United have slightly exceeded their own expectations of £510m revenues for the year to June 30, 2016. As has been the case for a number of years now, commercial income is roaring ahead, with a 36.3 per cent increase in that sector alone to £268.3m.

To put it into context, that figure would have put United 11th in the latest Deloitte Rich List, ahead of Tottenham, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Roma. The only slight downer is that United cannot claim to be the first football club to generate annual revenue in excess of £500m. That claim belongs to FC Barcelona, who benefited from a stronger Euro against the pound post-Brexit. On the commercial front during the 2015-16 season, the club activated its new kit sponsor and supply deal with Adidas, which it says “was a very successful launch”.

In addition it brought the management of Old Trafford Megastore in-house, and signed several licensing deals including with Sbenu, New Era and Columbia. Commercial revenue for the year was £268.3m, an increase of £71.4m, or 36.3 per cent, over the previous year. Meanwhile, broadcasting revenue for the year was £140.4m.

It was an increase of £32.7m, or 30.4 per cent, on the previous year, which the club says was “primarily due to participation in Uefa competitions”.

And matchday revenue was £106.6m, an increase of £16.0m, or 17.7 per cent on 2014-15, largely due to that European participation and the club’s run to the FA Cup final. The club’s ambitious revenue target for 2016-17 will be helped by the new Premier League TV deals. 

According to the club, “domestic live broadcasting rights (are) up 70 per cent and international rights up approximately 40 per cent for the 2017 to 2019 cycle’’.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Home nations fined by Fifa over poppy displays

England have been fined 45,000 Swiss francs for several breaches of Fifa's rules about displaying political symbols, the sport's governing body have confirmed. The national team wore poppies on black armbands during their match with Scotland, despite being warned not to by Fifa, costing the Football Association just over £35,000. Prior to kick-off, both teams participated in a minute's silence and members of the armed forces lay wreaths. The Scottish Football Association and the Football Association of Wales have each been fined 20,000 Swiss francs (£15,692) and the Irish Football Association 15,000 Swiss francs (£11,769) for similar offences All of the associations were warned by to the World Cup qualifiers that they would be punished if they chose to ignore Fifa's regulations on the matter.     England has been fined CHF 45,000 for several incidents in the framework of the England v Scotland match, including the display by the host association, the English team and s...

Buhari confirms appointment of Niger Delta Power Holding’s CEO

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of a substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and two Executive Directors for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC). Joseph Chiedu Ugbowho was in an acting capacity is now the substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company. Others are Mallam Babayo Shehu, Executive Director (Finance and Administration) and Engr. Ife Oyedele, Executive Director (Engineering and Technical Services). A statement signed by Bolaji Adebiyi, Director (Press),Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said Mr. Ugbo is a legal practitioner and infrastructure regulations specialist with extensive experience in electricity industry reform and privatization. “He has Bachelor and Master of Law Degrees from the University of Lagos and was admitted to practice Law in Nigeria in 1991. For over 15 years, he provided legal advisory services to public sector power entities including legal support t...

N’ Delta: How Adaka Boro was tried, convicted

Adaka Boro came into prominence in 1966 when proclaimed an Independent Niger Delta Peoples’ Republic with a flag and an emergency constitution. He paraded himself as the General Officer Commanding the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (DVS) and leader of the Liberation Government. Due to Boro’s intense agitation for resource control, it was learnt that he formed a band of fighters and allegedly trained them in the use of explosives and arms. Sometimes in March 1966, Boro, armed with a theory he called XYZ, declared Ijaw Republic thus: “Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but in the history of the Niger Delta. We are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression”. The activist and his followers also allegedly attacked a police station, blew up the armoury and took rifles and ammunition. They also reportedly blew up oil pipelines and engaged the police in a gun battle. Boro and two of his followers, Samuel Timipre Owonaru and Nottingham Dick were arrested ...