Yahoo News Man Utd facing same concerns as Nottingham Forest with fears now stalking even biggest clubs
Nottingham Forest’s struggles with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability spending rules are well documented.
Failure to comply cost them a points deduction last term and then plenty of angst this summer buying and selling players to ensure they did not fall foul of the rules for a second time.
Now Manchester United have undergone the same sort of scrutiny as Forest after they posted a £71.4m net loss for the third quarter of the financial year.
PSR allows for losses of up to £105m over three seasons, and United sources are confident the club will comply for the assessment period ending with the 2023/24 season.
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However, even the biggest clubs in the country are now beginning to feel the pressure of the top-flight’s tough player spending rules.
United’s net loss figure includes £30.3m in exceptional costs related to the sale of 27.7 percent of voting rights in the club to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, including consultancy fees owed to the American firm Raine.
United sources see those costs as a necessary price to pay in helping put in place the ownership and management structures they believe will bring greater discipline on recruitment in the future, while maintaining the club’s commercial resilience.
As for Forest, the sale of Moussa Niakhaté and Orel Mangala to French club Olympique Lyonnais for a combined fee pushing £50m largely put their PSR woes to bed for the time being, and the shedding of other fringe players has also helped cut costs, but they remain ever watchful knowing they could face the same issues come next June.
As for United, they too have been working hard to meet PSR requirements, and were able to trim squad costs via January loans, including Jadon Sancho going to Borussia Dortmund and Donny van de Beek to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Total operating expenses were up 15 per cent on the equivalent quarter last year to £203.7m, which included £91.2m in employee costs, reflecting investment in the first-team squad.
However, revenue was down 20 per cent compared to the same period last season, which the club attributed to playing nine fewer home matches.
And the accounts confirmed plans, first reported last week, for a redundancy programme which could lead to around 250 jobs being lost at Old Trafford.
