United reveal latest financial results today

MANCHESTER UNITED will post their second quarter results financial results today.

While most of the attention will be on whether the Glazer family also make a statement about their future intentions, those inside the club are more interested in rejecting a recent report that United’s popularity is on the wane.

It was claimed the club’s merchandising had suffered heavily from on-going anti-Glazer protests, with the visual ‘Green and Gold’ campaign helping to persuade supporters not to put money in the coffers of United’s controversial American owners.

However the report, conducted by respected sports business analysts Sport+Markt, has been received with incredulity at Old Trafford.

They claim statements regarding a 10% drop in sales come from figures only relating to United’s massive Megastore within their stadium complex, and from a season when they only played 29 home games compared to 32 in the previous campaign.

In fact, as today’s results — for the period up to 31 December 2010 — are likely to show, United are on course to become the first Premier League club to crash through the £100 million (€117m) barrier for annual commercial income, if not this financial year, then the next.

“The results of our merchandising business have continued to set records within the club, despite figures for 2009 including 10% more games at Old Trafford and the impact of winning the Premier League and appearing in two Champions League finals,” commercial director Richard Arnold said. “The business continued to grow in 2010. To achieve that using figures based only around stadium sales is remarkable.’’