The Director of Executive Education at the University Campus of Football Business, Wilson, has told Manchester United to expect more financial turbulence in the near future.
He recently revealed that the club’s sponsors are set to have the upper hand over minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Speaking during an interview with Genting Casino, Wilson said that MUFC will most likely battle more financial problems next season after missing out on crucial UCL qualification.
He revealed that a lot of commercial bonuses, appearance fees, and match day revenues that could’ve given the club more funds to spend on signings went off the table after the loss to Tottenham in the UEL final.
According to him, missing out on winning the Europa League immediately cost MUFC about £10-15 million in direct prize money, and that is excluding the whopping €80-100 million of additional revenue the club would’ve benefited from for qualifying for the Champions League.
“Having lost the Europa League, they’ve probably missed out on something between £10-15 million in direct prize money. The qualification that they’ve missed out on in the Champions League has cost them around about €80-100 million of additional revenue. That revenue is due to broadcast gate receipts and some of those UEFA payments. Then there’s stuff around commercial bonuses, appearance fees, match day revenues that they would have benefited from,” he said.
Wilson further stated that the reputation of the Red Devils keeps taking a hit every season, noting that sponsors mainly pump in their money for success and trophies.
He concluded by saying that the failure to lift the UEL trophy will only give the sponsors the upper hand during future negotiations.
“There’s some significant reputational impact that you would bake into this as well. Sponsors obviously pay for success and failing to lift the trophy last night and their league position dents the kind of narratives that those sponsors can use for leverage in commercial negotiations. The offset to that is a lot of Manchester United sponsors will have clauses in their contracts where they don’t have to pay as much if the club is not participating in Europe,” he added.
