United chief upbeat over £27.9m profits

Manchester United have today announced a pre-tax profit of £27.9m (€41.1m) for the financial year ended July 31, 2004.

The figure represents a fall of £11.4m (€16.8m) from last year but overall operating profits for the plc did show a 5.9% increase to £58.3m (€85.9m). Turnover for the year was £169m (€249m).

The reason for the decrease in the bottom-line profit figure is put down to increased spending on transfers, which during the period was £28.8m (€42.4m). Last year’s profit was also inflated by the sale of David Beckham.

The club also anticipate a fall in media revenue over the forthcoming year due to the new television contract and their failure to progress beyond the last 16 of the Champions League.

Chief executive David Gill however was insistent the figures are strong.

Gill told Sky Sports News: “We are happy with our results. They show the resilience of our financial performance.

“The impact of the new Premier League TV contracts will show a fall in our domestic TV income of £8m (€12m). In the Champions League we will show a drop there of up to £6m (€9m).

“Media revenues will take a hit but other areas are showing a positive sign.

“There are certain other elements we have to work on and expand those to offset the downturn in media revenue.”

The United chief claimed he was “proud” of the financial performance.

“We are one of the most attractive clubs in the world to do business with and to follow,” he added.

“We are still one of the best clubs in the world. We have spent £50m (€73m) since January this year on players and acquired Wayne Rooney, one of most experienced players in many a year.

“Look at the strength of the balance sheet – we have £36m (€53m) in cash. We don’t think we are on a downward spiral.

“We can get new players in and will continue to do that.”

The club have revealed they did not intend to bid for Rooney, who joined the club from Everton last month, until 2005 but were forced to act because of the interest of Newcastle.

As a result next summer’s transfer budget has already been spent and players will have to be sold before any more can be bought.

Gill refuted suggestions that United had a poor season last year and has given manager Alex Ferguson his full backing.

He said: “Is it good enough? Our aim is to challenge at the latter stage of the Premier League and Champions League every year.

“We are not sitting down saying we are satisfied but we don’t want to get things out of perspective.

“Sir Alex is very committed and motivated. He is clearly the manager, he is very fit and will continue for many years to come.

“He has signed a new contract and we are delighted with that. We are focused on giving him the resources and tools to continue the success of the last 18 or 19 years.”

One interesting facet of United’s latest figures is the decision to reveal the amount paid to agents.

United paid £2.3m (€3.3m) in agents’ fees, a figure Gill is happy to reveal.

He said: “We wanted to grab the initiative. We had some questions on agents’ fees at the AGM and we had 99 questions from Cubic Expression.

“But we have nothing to hide and want to be open and transparent. We are trying to set a benchmark for football.”