The coronavirus pandemic and failure to qualify for the Champions League had a huge impact on Manchester United’s finances last season, the club’s latest accounts have revealed.
Turnover for United has dropped by 19% from £627.1m in 2018/19 to £509.0m last season.
It’s the lowest turnover the clubs has had since 2014/15 when they earned just £395.2m.
While United have had a significant drop in revenue, their income still ranks as one of the highest in the country.
Only two clubs had higher revenues in 2018/19 than United had in 2019/20 - Liverpool (£533.0m) and Manchester City (£535.2m).
United’s matchday revenue dropped from £110.8m to £89.8m last season, in large part due to games being delayed and played behind closed doors.
The biggest drop in income though was in broadcast revenues, which fell from £241.2m to just £140.2m.
That’s a drop of £101.0m , or 42%.
This is primarily because the club was competing in the Europa League as opposed to the Champions League.
The reduction in revenue is also down to rebates having to be paid to broadcasters, estimated in the accounts to be around £14.0m.
The club’s wage bill fell from £332.4m to £284.0m, which works out as 56% of income.
Net debt at the club more than doubled last season, going from £203.6m in 2018/19 to £474.1m in 2019/20.
This was partially attributed to the impact of the lockdown, however, with the loss of matchday revenue and deferred sponsorship payments cited as an issue.
All in all it’s led to the club making a loss of £23.2m, compared to the profit of £18.9m the season before.
The club still paid out dividends though, worth a total of £23.3m.
That means a total of £111.9m has been paid out to shareholders over the last five seasons.
