Manchester United debt hits £716m

StevieJ

rictus123 wrote: »

Why is it ok for a football club to have these debts, any other company would be shut down long ago.

Because they have no share capital They could float Man Utd tomorrow and raise more than enough equity to cover the debt.

StevieJ

wymondham wrote: »

easily. Paying it's staff monopoly money wages.

You don't know a lot about it do you

Thrugelmir

princeofpounds wrote: »

Depends how much you value Ronaldo I guess ;-)

Actually my post was meant to be quite general, not a specific address to anyone though it might have looked that way. I just come across a lot of reporting on football clubs that tends to complete miss the point on corporate finances and it annoys me.

Football is not a business. Its a sport. Success is not guaranteed.

Football at the top level has priced itself out of the entertainment market. The Premier League is no longer the best league in the world.

Give me Championship or Div 1 football anyday now. Watching a match 2 evenally balance teams where the outcome of the match is uncertain.

I have no interest in any team I watch being a brand.

Football at the top level is heading for financial meltdown, unless the club is a plaything of a rich individual.

vivatifosi

StevieJ wrote: »

The problem is the fans think it is their club If they can stick together next season and not renew season tickets it will be BYE BYE GLAZER No 20,000 strong waiting list now.

Interesting you should mention that Stevie. Am in Florida at moment. DH and a lot of our friends here are Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans. I can remember Glazers coming to UK and their being sold as a bit of a sporting dynasty and knowing a thing or two about sport. Buccaneers have gone from sporting heroes (Superbowl a few years back) to zeros, and funnily enough their however many strong waiting list has evaporated too. Only die-hard fans will turn up week in, week out to watch their team lose whatever the sport. Bucs need a total rebuild, will be interesting to see if ManU ends up as big as a basket case.

Generali

FWIW, Liverpool are I believe about GBP350,000,000 in debt. Arsenal were GBP297,000,000 in debt when they produced their last accounts (link) although they still have a load of flats yet to be sold which they value at GBP167,000,000.

Man City and Chelsea basically have no debt as they have converted it (I believe) to equity.

Tottenham have net debt of GBP45,900,000, the Villa GBP37,000,000. My guess is that the owners of both clubs could make them debt free if needs be.

Generali

Yup, I was right. Man City have converted their debt to equity:

link

Manchester City became the latest English Premier League club to clear its long-term debts in anticipation of tougher financial rules being drawn up Uefa, European football’s governing body, after it announced that its Abu Dhabi owner had converted his £305m loans into equity. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who bought the club in September 2008, has invested up to £400m to help fund a player spending spree that mirrors Chelsea’s transfer bonanza under Roman Abramovich

My guess is that Man Utd and Liverpool need to be in the 'Champions' League pretty much every season. Woolwich Wanderers (Ars**al) could probably cope with a season of not having CL money as they have the flats to sell. After that things would get problematic.

FWIW, I think what has happened to football over the past 20 years is terrible. Having said that, it's pretty much always been the teams with big money that have won - from 1889 to 2009, Man Utd, Liverpool and Ars**al won the league 49 times between them!

The_Fat_el_Hombre

baby_boomer wrote: »

I salute the Glazers.

Bringing fairness and competition back into our national game & reviving the FA Cup, a national treasure of a competition . They are brilliant for football.

Agreed, I love the guys :beer:

inspector_monkfish

lemonjelly wrote: »

I'm seriously thinking about not being your friend!;)

Is it an inferiority complex or summat?:D

i know what i saw ..... and it wasn't good !!

princeofpounds

Football is not a business. Its a sport.

True, but only on the pitch for those 90 minutes.

The football clubs are almost all businesses. The clubs sold out many years ago in most cases.

chucky

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Football at the top level has priced itself out of the entertainment market.

not sure how you come to that conclusion - most if not all premiership matches are close to being sold out

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The Premier League is no longer the best league in the world.

the favourable tax systems in other countries have a bit to do with this.
Italy lost many highly paid players recently due to their less favourable tax system.
the Premiership could see the same thing happening to them in the medium term.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Give me Championship or Div 1 football anyday now. Watching a match 2 evenally balance teams where the outcome of the match is uncertain.

but it's not really football - it's physical attributes against physical attributes, there is little in the way of creativity or football intelligence being displayed.