One of England’s giant football clubs has fallen. Manchester United has suffered a decrease in their revenue by nearly 12% since the beginning of the season to December. This is largely due to the club’s absence in this season’s Champions League.
Their broadcasting revenue also suffered a decrease as it fell roughly by 33.4%. Though commercial revenues rose by 6.5% and the revenue on match-day was fairly the same. The Old Trafford executives are expecting total revenue of between £560m and £580m for 2020.
The team executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward has been under public scrutiny in the past couple of months. Speaking on the club’s current status, Woodward said, “The team has made progress on our squad rebuild. The players the club has signed and others who had come through its academy has put in place the foundation for delivering the long-term success that we are all working towards”.
The club announced they recorded revenue of £303.8m in the last six month period. The club is expecting a drop in broadcasting figures given their absence from the biggest European competition. Woodward said he hopes the club will finish strong this season and put things back in order for next season.
“We are pushing for a strong finish in the Premier League, the Europa League, and the FA Cup as we enter the final third of the season,” Woodward said.
Last January to July 2019 the club’s revenue drop to £627m, and was third behind Barcelona and Real Madrid’s according to the annual Deloitte’s football money league. The club figures, however, showed an increase in the number of employees at the end of the year to 979 from the 937 the previous year.
Meanwhile, Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba is currently receiving backlash from United fans over a comment he made. The France international said Liverpool deserved to be at the top of the Premier League which did not sit well with United fans.
The Frenchman has been missing in action due to an ankle injury that has kept him out of action for the majority of the season. The 26-year-old hasn’t started a Premier League game since September while his last appearances came in December when he was substituted off the bench. It was during this time he re-aggravated the injury and has been sidelined ever since.
Speaking on Liverpool this season, the midfielder said:
”They are so way ahead of everyone else. They have not lost a single game yet this season in the league. They already have one hand on the Premier League trophy. As a Manchester United player and with the rivalry between us, we don’t want them [Liverpool] to win the title but as a football lover and a respectful player to [the] opposition team, I have to say that they deserve to be where they are today. They have been even better than last season when they won the Champions League and the season before when they [lost the final to Real Madrid].”
Pogba’s future at Old Trafford is still unclear as he has been linked with a move to Real Madrid and Juventus over the past few months. The attacking midfielder admitted last summer he would like to take on a new challenge elsewhere and may just get to do that this summer.
