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

Chelsea preparing world-record Bonucci bid

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic has told manager Antonio Conte that a January move for Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci could be on the cards. According to reports from the Telegraph, the Russian businessman is prepared to bankroll a number of new signings in the New Year as the Blues look to retain the Premier League trophy. Bonucci would command a world-record fee for a defender, expected to be in the region of £50 million, should he move to Stamford Bridge.

Turkey bomb victims ‘mostly children’surviving

Most of the victims of the bombing of a Kurdish wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday were children, media reports have said. Twenty-nine victims were under the age of 18, reports said, with one official saying 22 were under the age of 14. The death toll rose to 54 yesterday. The suicide bomber himself was a child aged between 12 and 14, President Recep Tayyip One woman lost four children in the attack, Emine Arhan, said yesterday: “If it wasn’t for my only surviving child, I would have killed myself.” Another victim was a nine-year-old girl who had stayed on at the party to see the bride after her parents had left, according to reports. A disproportionately large number of women and children were killed in the attack because it targeted henna night, a part of the celebration attended mainly by women and children. Turkish officials said the type of bomb used, which contained scraps of metal, was similar to those used in previous attacks on pro-Kurdish gatherings. ...

Conte: Chelsea must learn to kill matches

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte says his side must learn to kill off matches quicker following their 3-2 League Cup win over Bristol Rovers. Michy Batshuayi scored two goals either side of a Victor Moses strike at Stamford Bridge to send the home side into the third round, but they were given a fright when the visitors twice halved a two-goal deficit through Peter Hartley and an Ellis Harrison penalty. The victory is Conte's third in competitive matches as Chelsea boss, following 2-1 wins over West Ham and Watford in the Premier League - both of which came about thanks to late goals from Diego Costa. And the former Italy boss wants his players to become more ruthless in their approach in order to prevent similarly nervy encounters in future. "These games are very tough," he told BBC Radio London Sport. "When you dominate the game, you must kill the game. In this case, we didn't do this. "It's a pity because when you're playing very well, creating a lot...