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The 30 per cent rise comes after improved deals for
Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. United’s Premier League and
Champions League Double last season saw them splash £13.3m in
bonuses, compared to £8.6m the previous year.
Chief executive David Gill is United’s best-paid
non-playing or non-coaching employee on £1.7m a year. The champions
are still second in the big spenders table with Chelsea’s bill at
£148m — a rise of 12 per cent.
Manchester United have posted the most spectacular profits for
any British football club - while at the same time being part of
its biggest debt.
Accounts to June 2008 reveal turnover at the club has risen an
incredible 22% to £256.2million, underpinning a 7.5% increase in
profits to £80.4million.
However, Red Football - the umbrella for United and its various
offshoots - confirmed a loss of £44.8million, taking their overall
debt to an eye-watering £649.4million.
Critics are bound to pounce on the figure as evidence of an
unsustainable financial structure, questioning how it is possible
for the Glazer family to make a profit if their losses are so high
in a season as successful as the last one.
Yet Manchester United's owners have never given any impression
of being too concerned about the debt mountain itself, the payments
for which were restructured two years ago and currently takes
£45.5million annually out of United's profits.
Instead they prefer to maintain a drive for profits at a club
whose overall value is estimated at over £1billion. Whether, in the
current financial climate, they can continue to squeeze even more
from the United brand is open to doubt.
Attendance figures, while still extremely healthy, are showing
signs of dipping slightly, suggesting further controversial
increases in ticket prices might have more of a negative effect
than has previously been the case.
Income from media streams, which show up a mammoth 30% rise to
£90.7million, might offer more scope for improvement given the
domestic Premier League TV deal has gone up five per cent, with the
overseas contracts likely to exceed that figure.
