A further sign of the acute financial predicament of the English game was posted yesterday when Manchester United's parent company, Red Football Joint Venture, published their accounts for season 2007-2008, when the club won both league and Champions League.
Turnover rose by 20% to £256.2m, levels never previously seen by an English club, but despite making a remarkable £20m profit on transfer deals (the full value of the Tevez purchase was not recognised in these accounts), they still made a loss of £44.8m, with debt rising to £692m.
While interest rates are falling for most of the world, Manchester United are stuck with Payment in Kind loans at a rate of 14.25%, the outstanding value of which rose from £152m to £175.5m during the season as the company was unable to find alternative finance. Again.
As with most the clubs in the FA Premier League, Manchester United are a bloated monolith. The current business model is unsustainable, debts are rapidly approaching three times turnover and unless significant player sales occur, debt will continue to rise for years to come.
Interest payments totalled £68.8m and that is just to keep the debt standing still. It will take a generation of penance to meet interest payments and pay down the loans to get the club within striking distance of where it was before the Glazers took over.
And let's not forget, this is without the football income bubble bursting!
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