Manchester United In Race For Financial Superiority
Manchester United is keen to correct the impression that it has slipped down the table of football’s money league arguing that recent analyses of its own data and that of its rivals do not compare like with like. This week it will seek to re-establish itself as one of the world’s richest clubs by announcing record gross turnover of £245m. The club will also claim a third of a billion supporters around the world. When it unveils its financial results on Friday for the year to 30 June 2007, it will say gross turnover, which includes revenue from its Nike merchandising deal and income from MUTV, its broadcasting arm, has risen 21 per cent from £202m the previous year. However, its published results will exclude merchandising revenue because that is recorded under Manchester United Merchandising Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary. The club itself will report turnover of more than £220m.
However, the club’s overall income still leaves it behind Real Madrid which in September reported turnover for 2006-7 of £263m. However, United is more concerned about competing in the financial league with England’s other top clubs. The club is thought to have been peeved when its finances were compared unfavourably with those of Arsenal when the North London club published its annual results in September. Arsenal reported that its £201m turnover was above United’s £168m even though the Arsenal figure was for gross turnover for 2006-7, including non-recurring property income, while United’s figure was for net turnover for the previous season. The Old Trafford club will this week claim that a £245m gross turnover is a truer comparable figure with Arsenal’s 2006-7 turmover of £177m. However, Chelsea will join the race for second place when it is expected to report turnover of around £200m later this month.
Its estimate of a global fan base of 333m is based on research the club commissioned from TNS Sport. The conclusions were based on interviews in 21 countries. When such research was last undertaken in 2003, the global fan base was estimated at 75m, but the large increase may simply reflect different methodologies. In the latest research a ‘fan’ was someone who stated that United were their favourite club outside their own home country. Other financial indicators are looking good with the club reporting that its wages-to-turnover ratio has fallen from 51.6 per cent to 43.6 per cent, well within the 50 per cent figure it has set as a long-term aim.