As Liverpool head into a week that could potentially define their season, Manchester United’s latest set of financial results demonstrate the need for Jurgen Klopp's side to finish strongly to take fourth spot.
In what has been a campaign of relative struggle for the Reds, they find themselves seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, albeit with two games in on their crisis-hit, managerless rivals.
Emerging from the international break, Liverpool face trips to second-placed Manchester City on Saturday and then mid-table Chelsea on Tuesday, before welcoming league leaders Arsenal to Anfield on Sunday week. Maximum points from those games would see the pendulum swing in the Reds' direction once more, but the magnitude of the task awaiting them cannot be understated.
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Manchester United are a team that already looks to have locked in third place and a spot in next season’s Champions League.
For United, a club currently in the midst of a takeover battle between Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and British billionaire and INEOS founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a return to European football’s elite knockout competition will be a most welcome boost after a season in the Europa League, something of the wilderness for members of the ‘big six’.
As a public limited company, the Red Devils produce a quarterly financial report. Their latest set of results, for quarter two, a period up to December 31, 2022, showed the impact of the club’s poor on-pitch performance in 2021/22, with revenues slumping 10 per cent year on year.
Under the stewardship of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then interim boss Ralf Rangnick, United could only manage a sixth-placed finish last season, meaning they missed out on the lucrative Champions League, something that is a very real possibility for Liverpool come the end of this campaign.
As a result of the Red Devils' final placing, and having to make do with the Europa League, the club saw a 32.1 per cent decline in its broadcasting revenue for the second quarter of the current financial year due to the major difference in the value of the rights for Europe’s second-tier cup competition compared to its crown jewel.
United, who posted a £6.3m profit for the three-month period, are on course to have an annual revenues of between £590 and £610m, by their own estimates, but they believe the highest revenue totals they have posted of £627m would have been surpassed if they had made the Champions League. The slump in revenues is, largely, attributable to their absence from the competition.
For Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, who are themselves seeking investment into the club through the sale of a partial stake ahead what is set to be an expensive summer, missing out on the Champions League, which delivered around £100m in revenue for the club last year, would be impactful.
United will be more bullish about their financial prospects moving forward given their healthy chances of Champions League qualification, as well as having the potential sale in the background.
After a year of success on the pitch in 2021/22 that saw them finish second in the Premier League, as runners-up in the Champions League and win both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, Liverpool brought in record revenues of £594m for the most recent financial period for the month ending May 2022.
Staying competitive in the league, in Europe and in the transfer market has been predicated on the strength of the business as a whole. While in rude health, the impact of missing out on the Champions League would only serve to heighten the need for a fresh influx of capital to help bridge the gap to allow the Reds to spend what is required to ensure that any absence from the Champions League is only a temporary one.
A hugely significant few weeks lie ahead.
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