The revelations have been made public by Ed Woodward, the club's executive vice-chairman and man who runs the club for the Glazer family as he detailed United's financial accounts for last season
and made forecasts for this campaign.
The numbers showed record income of £433.2million for 2013-14 but an expectation that will plunge below
£400m this season - highlighting the black hole of not playing the Champions League this season.
United earned around £55m from Europe's top competition last season: £36m in UEFA cash and
£19m from five home games in the tournament.
Getting back into Europe is a must for United and Woodward confirmed they are budgeting for a top-three finish. 'We assume third in our budgets,' he told investors in a conference call.
United spent £153.1 million this summer on players including a British record £59.7m on Angel di Maria and £6m for the one-year loan of Radamel Falcao.
Woodward said he did not envisage any major signings in January but admitted that the club would consider any proposals made by Van Gaal.
He said: 'We don't intend to significantly increase capital expenditure (by buying players) in January.
'We will continue to monitor in association with Louis his view of the squad and which areas we want to strengthen and which areas we want to sell.
'I wouldn't have expectations for January but if there is a willingness from the manager, we will engage
with him and if there is an opportunity, we will try and take that as we did last year with Juan Mata.'
United reported profits of £23.8m for the last financial year as the club's sponsorship revenue increased by 49 per cent and commercial revenue soared nearly a quarter to £189.3m.
But it cost the club £5.2m to sack manager David Moyes and his coaching staff and projections show
their revenue is expected to fall by 10 per cent in the current financial year because of their failure to qualify for Europe's elite club competition.
United's wage bill rose 19 per cent to £214.8m, an increase of £34.3m, 'primarily due to the impact of player acquisitions and renegotiated player contracts', according to the annual report.
This is the first time United's wage bill has broken the £200m barrier and they are only the second club after Man City to exceed it. This is before the summer acquisitions of Di Maria and Falcao have their impact.
The figures also reveal United's sponsorship income increased by 49 per cent last year with a number of
new deals coming on stream. The club concluded the largest kit sponsorship deal in history with Adidas, worth £750m over a 10-year period.
0 comments: