Man United top of money league as revenues set for record

Manchester United are on track to achieve record revenues despite their absence from this season’s Champions League.

United returned to the top of the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time since 2005 last month and yesterday they announced record profits for any quarter in their history.

Total revenue for the fiscal second quarter ending on 31 December 2016 was £157.9million – an 18 per cent improvement on the same period in 2015.

Broadcasting revenue was up 40.8 per cent for the quarter to £52.5m and matchday earnings rose 27 per cent to £38.6m, due to an increase in matches.

Those figures mean United are on target to achieve record revenues of between £530m and £540m in the period from July 2016 to the end of June 2017. Executive vicechairman Ed Woodward said: “The robustness of our business model continues to be reflected in our strong quarterly financial results and we remain on track to deliver record revenues for the year.”

United’s net debt has increased by 27.1 per cent to £409.3m due to the post-brexit collapse of the pound, with the strengthening of the dollar leading to the figure rising by £87.2m.

Veteran midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger’s return to the first team has been reflected in the accounts, having been written off as an asset in the end-of-year results announced in September.

The results said: “Exceptional credit for the quarter was £4.8m, relating to a reversal of a registrations’ impairment charge for a player now considered to be re-established as a member of the first team playing squad.”

0 Ed Woodward: ‘Record’.