Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Avram Glazer were booed by Man Utd staff last night.
Man Utd screened the Europa League final at an event for their employees and their families, and the staff’s feelings for owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family were made very obviously public.
When Sir Jim and Avram Glazer (both attending the game in Bilbao) were shown on the screen, The Athletic reports that they were greeted by a chorus of boos.
Ratcliffe insists these measures of austerity are necessary to cut needless spending and help the club return to profitability.
Many have balked at that suggestion, however, given the spending on staff is a miniscule amount of money when compared to the expenditure of a top football club like United.
This lack of job security and any sort of rewards and loyalty (club captain Bruno Fernandes has on more than one occasion stepped in to pay for staff and their families to travel, for instance) explains why Sir Jim would be booed by his own staff.
A PSR firesale looms for Man Utd
The financial outlook for Man Utd only gets worse after their Europa League final defeat at the hands of Spurs.
Without the £100 million or so of expected revenue from participation in the League Phase (and beyond?) of next season’s Champions League, Man Utd are going to be in a big problem with regards to the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
The PSR state that Premier League clubs may not post more than £105 million of financial losses over a three year period.
During the last calculation, Man Utd were less than £5 million away from breaching that limit. This coming season, with no Champions League revenue (in fact no European TV revenue at all) United are in serious trouble.
The only way to fill that gap is with significant player sales, most likely of young talent from the academy where the entire fee can be booked as profit.
This means the likes of Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho could soon see themselves on the transfer market.
Even club captain Bruno Fernandes isn’t safe. The Portuguese superstar, comfortably United’s only world-class player, has himself said: “If the club thinks its time to leave… that is what it is”
To make matters worse, the United squad still needs significant investment into it in order to become competitive again (especially so if they sell Fernandes) so they will have to make even more sales in order to fund recruitment.
To do all that while still avoiding the fiscal losses may be impossible, and so Man Utd may find it simpler to breach the financial rules and eat whatever punishment will come their way for this coming season.
Everton were deducted two points for their breaching of PSR, could Man Utd suffer a similar fate? It seems very likely.
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