Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada has said the club is reaping the “positive financial impact” of new part-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s massive cuts, including around 450 job losses, after the club returned to profit, despite a fall in revenues and no European football this season.
The club generated an operating profit of £32.6million in the first six months of the fiscal year, compared with a £3.9m loss for the same period last year.
The operating profit for the most recent quarter was £19.6m, compared to £3.1m in the same period last year.
The apparent turnaround comes after minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversaw a wide-scale redundancy programme and restructuring of the club, and in announcing their latest figures, United said they were seeing “the positive impact of operating cost and headcount reduction programmes implemented in the prior year.”
United’s total revenues for the second quarter of the financial year were £190.3m, down from £198.7m for the equivalent period the previous year, with commercial revenue dropping from £85.1m to £78.5m and matchday revenues down from £52m to £49.5m.
But with a resurgent United improving performance on the field – they’re up to fourth in the Premier League under interim manager Michael Carrick following the January sacking of Ruben Amorim, and the women’s side second in the Super League and through to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League – Berrada, who knows a thing or two about running a successful football club from his time as COO at rivals Manchester City, believes things could finally be turning around for the struggling sporting giants.
“We are now seeing the positive financial impact of our off-pitch transformation materialise both in our costs and profitability,” Berrada said. “We continue to take a football-first approach and invest in both our men’s and women’s first teams.
“On the pitch our men’s team sits fourth in the Premier League and our women’s team are second in the Women’s Super League, as well as reaching the League Cup final and the quarter-final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
“Today’s results demonstrate the underlying strength of our business as we continue to push for the best football results possible for our men’s and women’s teams.”
United said the club remains on track to record revenues of between £640m and £660m for the full fiscal year.
