Manchester United has on Thursday announced its first-quarter revenue of £141 million. But the Red Devils players’ wages have risen as a result of their Champions League return.
In January, United moved back to the top of the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time since 2005.
The Old Trafford outfit became the first British club to break the half-a-billion pound revenue mark in 2016, a position which was improved on with overall revenue rising from £515.3m to £581.2m for the year ending June 30, 2017.
The latest set of accounts published on Thursday, which cover the first quarter of 2018 ending Sept. 30, 2017, show a 17 percent increase in total revenue from £120.2m over the same period last year.
Commercial revenue for the quarter was £80.5m, an increase of £6.2m, which was boosted by five tour matches across the United States, including fixtures against the LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, Real Madrid and Barcelona as well as domestic rivals Manchester City.
United also spent around £145m ahead of the new campaign, bringing in the likes of striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton, midfielder Nemanja Matic from Chelsea and defender Victor Lindelof from Benfica.
There was also a 30 percent increase in broadcasting revenue compared to the same quarter last year, helped by a return to the Champions League for Jose Mourinho’s side following their Europa League triumph last season.
However, total operating expenses for the quarter were reported at £143.1m, which is up from £20.9m over the same period in 2017.
These figures include an increase of £7.6m, some 12.2 percent, in “employee benefit expenses,” which the club said is “primarily due to player salary uplifts due to participation in the UEFA Champions League.”
Net income for the period was listed at £7.9m. Net debt was listed as £268.1m at Sept. 30, 2017, a decrease of £69.6m over the year, while United’s parent holding company also reported fiscal revenue for 2018 was expected to be £575m to £585m.
United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said, “We are just over a quarter of the way through what promises to be another exciting season.
“In the Champions League we have won all four games played to-date; we are through to the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup; and are looking forward to the next few months as the number of matches ramps up.”
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