Manchester United take £22m hit from sacking of Ruben Amorim | Manchester United
Manchester United took a £22m hit from the sacking of former manager Ruben Amorim but has halved its losses thanks to improved performance on the pitch and co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting drive.
United’s successful resumption of Champions League football under Michael Carrick saw a 57% increase in broadcast revenue in the third quarter of the financial year to around £65 million, as more of the club’s matches were optioned for TV.
The extra cash has helped the club lift its full-year revenue forecast to between £655m and £665m, from the £640m-£660m previously predicted. Despite the improvement, annual revenue on this scale will almost exactly match 2025, when United have fallen to an all-time low of eighth place in the Deloitte Football Money League.
As well as boosting revenue, the club has also embarked on a ruthless cost-cutting drive since Ratcliffe bought a minority stake in 2024 and took charge of sports operations. Although the club has spent around £260 million on players in 2025-26, the petrochemical billionaire has continued cost cuts, leading to hundreds of staff redundancies, the closure of the staff canteen and free lunches being replaced with fruit.
The result of the cuts was a £19m drop in operating expenses to £525m in the first nine months of the year. The savings were more than offset by the cost of removing Amorim in January. Accounts show that the Portuguese forward and his backroom staff earned up to £16.7 million, and the write-off of costs associated with their contracts had a corresponding non-cash impact of £5.2 million.
“The cost of sacking managers continues to haunt the club,” said football finance expert Stefan Borson, head of sport at law firm McCarthy Denning.
Overall, rising revenue and falling costs led to improved profitability. The club noted operating performance that excluded factors such as debt interest payments. Based on this, the club reported a profit of £37.7 million in the first nine months, compared to a loss of £3.2 million in the same period in 2025.
The club suffered a total pre-tax loss of £18 million, taking into account costs such as £20 million in paying interest on debt, including a £480 million loan linked to the Glazer family’s takeover of the club in 2005. But the foray into the red was less than half the £36m loss reported after nine months last year.
“It’s a solid set of figures with a few surprises,” Borson said, adding that the £655m-£665m revenue forecast for this financial year was now a “base case scenario” for United as the club had no European football or training kit sponsors this season.
Online gambling company Betway has agreed to sponsor United’s training jerseys next season, with Premier League clubs agreeing not to advertise gambling on the jerseys they play on.
While the deal is thought to be worth £20m, Borson said United could expect to earn around £80m more through Champions League qualification under former United midfielder Carrick, who became interim manager following Amorim’s departure and was appointed on a permanent basis on Friday.
