Manchester United Wins Profits, Loses Matches, as Sale Drags On

The ticket sales remain brisk. Their popularity around the world hasn’t diminished. The money keeps rolling in. Manchester United has opened the books, and in the previous fiscal year, they generated £648.8 million (equivalent to $784 million US) in income.

But the ownership saga and attempt to sell the club has dragged on for a full year, and the team is still losing money overall. They took a loss this past year of £28.7 million, which is actually a big improvement over the previous year’s – £115.5.

It’s the main reason they officially remain on the market and haven’t finalized a buyer. The billionaires who have expressed interest in purchasing part or all of United – Sir Jim Ratcliffe the most recent and notable – aren’t in the business of losing money.

Another Loss to City is Insult to Injury

On Sunday in the Manchester Derby, Manchester City manhandled United, 3-0. The big off-season acquisition of Mason Mount was supposed to make the difference in big games like this. Instead, he didn’t play until the second half, and the midfielder did nothing to slow the City attack.

City has now beaten United in back-to-back matches, including the FA Cup Final in June. This was City’s third win in the last four FA Cup meetings against their rivals, and the win on Sunday made them 4-1 in the last five League meetings.

United manager Erik Ten Tag is 1-3 against City in his brief tenure in charge, and the revolving door at the manager position is one of the biggest issues with this team. Since Alex Ferguson retired 10 years ago, United has had eight managers, including interim and caretaker managers. Ten Tag has the best record of the group, and he’s the only one to win a trophy since Jose Mourinho in 2017.

But this season, he has lost five of his first 10 matches, and a bad loss to City has the supporters in Manchester grumbling.

To win the Premier League, Manchester United is paying +13000 at Xbet.ag. On the other side of this derby, City is the favorite at -168.

Soccer bettors haven’t cashed a United bet to win the Premier League since 2013. Meanwhile, if you used one of the top soccer sportsbooks to place a bet on City to win the Premier League, you have cashed your betting slip six times since United bettors have.

City has nine Premier Leagues in their history, and six of them have come in the last 10 years – 2013-2014, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023.

If City wins the Premier League this season, they would become the first club in history to win four consecutive titles.

A Sale is Coming… Eventually

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani had been the front-runner to buy part of United. But he has pulled out of the running. That leaves Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe as the expected new part-owner.

The 25% he wants to purchase is worth £1.3 billion ($1.57 billion), and the approval process for the selling members of the Glazer family, the owners since 2005, is being slowed down by the nonselling members of the Glazer family.

The hope of United fans is that a partial sale would eventually lead to a complete sale, but that is unclear at this point. Although along with that being the desire of fans, it’s also what former United star David Beckham supports.

“At the moment, there’s no stability. It’s the right time for somebody to take over.”