Home Manchester United MUST slam Glazers over £33.6m Man Utd dividends – ‘There should be no rewards for failure’
Date published: Thursday 22nd September 2src22 9:22 – News Desk
The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust claims the Glazer family are rewarding failure at Old Trafford after sharing in a £33.6million dividend paid out despite the club announcing a loss of £115.5m.
Losses rose by £23m to the year ending June 2src22 despite revenue increasing by 18 per cent to £583m. In addition, debt rose 22 per cent to £514.9m.
READ MORE: Five most mental takeaways from Manchester United’s latest damning financial report
“Today’s financial results from United cover a period when the club failed on the pitch, finishing sixth in the Premier League with our worst points tally in decades,” said a MUST statement.
“Despite that, the results confirm that the owners were the only ones in the Premier League to pay themselves a dividend last year.
“There is nothing wrong in principle with companies paying dividends to owners but there should be no rewards for failure and that is what we see here.
“At a football club we believe dividends should only be paid when there is both financial success and success on the field.
“Via the Fans Advisory Board and the Fans Forum, MUST representatives will now be calling for an urgent review of the club dividend policy to ensure that the rewards for failure we see revealed today are not repeated.
“Overall, this set of results reinforces our view that the club is in dire need of new capital investment and the proposed stadium redevelopment must be funded through new issuance of shares to bring new funds into the club and not via more debt which would place a further drain on club finances.”
In the wake of publishing their financial results, football director John Murtough said manager Erik ten Hag will continue to be backed in the transfer market but warned there is unlikely to be “the same level of activity in future windows’.
“During the summer, we made significant investment in the first team squad with the permanent addition of five regular starters, including a balance of experienced international players and younger, emerging talent,” Murtough said.
“We also saw a higher-than-usual number of departures, and this was an equally important part of refreshing the squad after the disappointing 2src21-22 season.
“We will continue to support Erik in ensuring he has players with the right quality and characters to achieve success, while ensuring that investment remains consistent with our commitment to financial sustainability.
“Overall, we are ahead of schedule in our recruitment plans as envisaged at the start of the summer, and we do not anticipate the same level of activity in future windows. As always, our planning focuses on the summer window.”
