MANCHESTER UNITED’S revenue dropped almost 20 per cent as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
And 20 of Europe’s elite football clubs lost more than £1billion combined as the financial impact on the beautiful game became clearer.
KPMG Football Benchmark’s The European Champions Report revealed the shocking figures for the 2019-20 season.
Published this month, it highlights how clubs fared while dealing with the global pandemic.
And United were among the worst hit of the 20 sampled clubs – as Ed Woodward anticipated last year.
The Old Trafford side saw their operating revenues fall to £516million, a drop of 18.5 per cent.
Fellow English sides Liverpool turned over £496m (7.9 per cent drop) and Tottenham took in £408m (12.3 per cent) as they took a slightly softer blow.
However, Scottish champions Celtic’s revenue dropped by 15.5 per cent.
From the 20 clubs, Porto came out worst with a staggering 50.5 per cent drop with Roma second on 39.3 per cent.
Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla were the only two sides to see their revenue increase.
The Germans’ went up 0.6 per cent while the LaLiga outfit’s rose by 6.3 per cent.
PSG (15 per cent), Barcelona (15.7 per cent) and Juventus (13.4 per cent) all saw similar drops in their operating revenues – but the Nou Camp giants still took in more revenue than any other club with £630m.
Six teams registered net profits last season – Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Benfica as well as the two European champions Bayern Munich and Sevilla.
Out of those, Benfica’s was the biggest with a £37m gain.
At the other end of the spectrum, Roma and AC Milan had the biggest net losses with £181m and £173m respectively.
(the sun)
