Manchester United have released their results for the 2022/23 season
Manchester United earned record revenue for a Premier League club but still suffered a heavy loss in the 2022/23 season.
United became the first Premier League club to show their financial results for the 2022/23 financial year. It had revenues of £648.4m and operating income of £302.9m, down a whopping £52.8m. Due to their lack of participation in the Champions League, the wage bill was not enough to see them through as the club lost £42.1m in the same period.
Due to the nature of the club’s leveraged buyout in 2005, the club still had £536.7m of long-term debt on its balance sheet, although the unpopular owners, the Glazer family, are currently in talks to sell the stake. The club of INEOS founder and billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe failed to collect a dividend for the first time in seven years.
Despite their lack of success on the pitch, Manchester United have still managed to remain one of the strongest in world football when it comes to making money, which Liverpool have significantly closed the gap on over the past decade. tried to find ways to win consistently while still making a profit.
Flash forward 10 years and Manchester United’s annual revenue in the 2012/13 season was £363 million, the fourth highest in world football. 2022/2023 turnover of £648.4m up 78.6% over the decade. In terms of operating income, it grew from £152.4 million to the current £302.9 million. That’s a 98.7 percent increase over the decade.
Liverpool is likely to report its results in the first months of 2024 and after a number of key partnerships were signed last financial year, some revenues, including operating income, are expected to increase. The Reds are also not looking forward to the 2022/23 season, with Manchester United facing a lack of Champions League revenue after the Red Devils had to settle for lower Europa League fees for that period. . That is a cost burden that Liverpool will have to shoulder when the 2023/24 accounts are revealed in 2025.
But while Manchester United’s numbers may be leading the way, at least until Manchester City publishes its financial report for the 2022/23 period, Liverpool’s rate of growth over the past decade is impressive. Total revenue has climbed a whopping 192.6%, up from £203m to £594m in 2022. When it comes to commercial revenues, they too have climbed at a faster rate than Manchester United, up 152.8% from £97.7m in 2012/13 to £247m for 2021/22, with that sum, and overall percentage for the full decade, expected to grow significantly.
Having achieved £594m in turnover in 2021/22, with the club making a rather modest but still impressive £7.5m pre-tax profit, Liverpool are likely to break the £600m mark when it comes to overall revenue when the accounts for the 2022/23 period are published. That will be driven by a reduction in the wage bill, which was the second highest in English football for the last financial year at £366m. That high payroll for last period was due to payments made in relation to on-pitch success, during a season where the club won the FA Cup and League Cup, finished second in the Premier League and runners up in the Champions League. It will, however, include for the first time in full the renewal of Mohamed Salah’s contract in the summer of 2022.
For Liverpool, they are well positioned to tackle the next 10 years and overtake Manchester United from both a competitive and financial basis, consistently. Once the Anfield Road redevelopment is completed the club will, with the benefit of a full season, be achieving matchday revenues of £100m plus per year. Significant infrastructure investment has already been made in terms of the stadium, the AXA Training Center in Kirkby and the buy-back of the Melwood Training Center for the women’s team. The latter is the first step for Reds owners Fenway Sports Group and the “one team” policy the club has instituted for both the men’s and women’s teams. Explosive growth is expected in the prestige of women’s national teams. in the coming years in Europe, as it is now in North America.
The challenge for Manchester United, a club still in limbo after a long takeover saga, is to refinance the renovation of Old Trafford or build a new building, while being able to invest and keep its balance sheet strong. and can compete on the field. With the Premier League’s salary cap rumbling over a possible solution and loan costs currently high, the nature of the Glazers’ absentee owners with little focus on building for the future could prove problematic, even if record revenues suggest all is well. outside
