Eurosport - Thu, 09 Oct 15:06:00 2008
Manchester United's American owners insist the club will not be affected by the credit crunch.
The financial meltdown currently affecting the global economy has already begun to infiltrate the football world, with clubs feeling the pinch after years of over-spending.
Billionaire chiefs such as Chelsea's Roman Abramovich and Manchester City's Abu Dhabi United Group can handle the cash catastrophe, but there were fears that United may struggle.
The club remains £660million in debt following the Glazers' 2005 takeover, but continue to generate enormous revenue around the world.
A refinancing package in 2006 has helped the club to manage their debt and a spokesman for the Glazer family has played down concerns regarding the club's financial health.
"The credit crunch is not having a negative bearing on United," they said.
"We continue to benefit from the sell-out of Old Trafford and the growth in commercial operations.
"We refinanced back in 2006 and that structure provides long-term stability. The debt continues to be comfortably serviced by the club's strong growth in cash flow."
United's shirt sponsors, AIG, have been hit by the credit crunch in the States, with their future remaining unclear.
However, United insist the £14m-a-year deal with the American Insurance Group represents only a small percentage of their revenue stream.
The club remain confident that they could strike a lucrative deal elsewhere should the AIG contract fall through, while they have recently struck a commercial deal with Saudi Telecom and extended their link with Budweiser.
Comment 2 - 21 of 41
Kim my love, what exactly are you basing your 'think of the Million or so residents of MANCHESTER itself where very few of them actually support UTD' statistics on?
Or is it merely a case of, 88.725% of statistics are made up on the spot?
This is in contrast to the statistic that 100% of women should stay out of football and concentrate on cooking and pleasing their man.
So before you come out with any more drivel, put the kettle on, then sit back and let the boys talk some sense, because you've clearly lost the plot.
united immune- yeah right
Er excuse me the previous postee clearly said "300,000,000 million" I didn't mistype what they said, I cut and pasted it.
So that is Three THOUSAND,THOUSAND,THOUSAND, Million people quoted, which i may add is considerably more than 6.5billion (which is only 6.5 Thousand, Million people)
and they can't all be demented Utd Supporters, i for one can't stand the @#$%, and think of the Million or so residents of MANCHESTER itself where very few of them actually support UTD
its only 300 million hun, there are 6.5 billion people in the world
they have over 300,000,000 million ???
there ain't that many people in the entire world morons !!
Anyway just because somebody buys Man utd memorabilia it don't mean to say they are a true fan. Like other clubs (who have followed them) Utd are using the rest of the world for sheer marketing puposes to ensure sale of goods, They were the first EPL club to pick up on it, But let's remember one thing here. before Sky TV came along and showed UTd every other week. the best supported club in the entire world (when it came to fan club membership) was actually Glasgow Rangers, closely followed by the mighty Celtic, then by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Both Milan Clubs and Juventus.
So it's only in recent years through non stop media propoganda (plus a little success too) that Utd have become the perceived best supported club in the world.
before that, indeed they may have been the best known, English club, throughout the World, but that was due to "Bobbieeeeeeeeee Charlton" and George Best, and let's be fair any success they had after 1968 and before the Premiership was formed was pretty minimal for a club their size.
I don't give a f*ck about MU - Part 2 (original mix)
I don't give a f*ck about MU
DAY D YOU ARE A @#$%
i agree with what andreichitu22 said :)
Peter K - to be honest, I don't think football can shelter itself from the current global financial issues. I hope it hits the game hard. It's high time that the game got back to the pre-Sky days where players would play for buttons to be out on the pitch wearing the badge. Get rid of the agents, cap player salaries to something that reflects reality, and make sure that clubs can operate on their own finances.
Day D! What a f*****g looser, a frustrated looser. Get the f**k out of here
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DAY D------
okay so because AIG pay United 14 million a year in sponsorship it means they own the club? I don't think so. Therefore please explain how you seem to think that 'figuretively' the US government own the Club?
Thanks
Hey - 'gafyn_richard_adams78' -
U dumbass......... dont even know about yr own team!! AUDI has cut their deal with united effective since the beginning of the season. They said they didnt want to be associated with ManUre anymore. Try and keep abreast with what is going on with yr team, or u'll end up sounding like u do right now - like a dumbass!! And sorry to disappoint u 'Saudi telecom' is not - 'new breed of telecommunications transportation'!! And as for AIG 80% if them are owned by the US government, how do u feel about the US government owning yr football team (figuretively)!! Think before u open than ManUre mouth of yours.
jellyknob you missing the point the costs in premiership all down to ONE owner which put his Dodgy wealth into our club!!! and transfers and players wages gone to 100,000,000 mills + a year thanks Mr Abramovich you made us but are destroying smaller clubs at this rate there will be NO 1st or 2nd division they be bankrupted trying to survive as next upcoming recession will prove look at future not now. (chelsea fan)
Always thought AIG was not "United" enough to be their sponsors... Audi and Air Asia are other associated sponsors and I'd much rather wear a Manchester United shirt with Audi as the sponsor... Even then if Budweiser came in, you'd have the ban on sponsorship on kids shirts like Everton and Liverpool have faced with Chang and Carlsberg respectively... Saudi Telecom would be an interesting sponsor to have too with a new breed of telecommunications transportation and networking being implemented on a world wide scale. I hope AIG do collapse just for that reason lol.
The Glazers are just a parasite on the club. When they 'bought' it, it was the world's richest club with over £500m in the bank - all earnt as a bi-product of on-the-pitch success (unlike chelsea) - yet it was bought with borrowed money, raised on the back of his franchises in the US. The sneaky leprechaun then transferred all his personla debt onto the club, plunging it into £700m debt, with annual interest repayments of over £30m. The moral of the story is to keep things in private hands, and 'when it aint bust, don't fix it'.
man-utd have no worries their financies can be wrote off by selling 4 players and the new saudi adver's for their shirt ads and if glaziers did decide to sell the BIGGEST global advert in football they would get treble what any other club would get which makes them 110/% solvent, value ? 1/2 billion minimum what say you they have over 300,000,000 million fan base and still counting Sad to say unbiased (chelsea fan)
who care? We care about L/Pool & Arsenal
gimini jilakers
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