Man Utd to Take £67m Hit for Failing to Qualify for the Champions League

United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward 

Manchester United expect their annual revenue to fall by around £67m due to their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

The Red Devils have released their financial figures for the first quarter of 2019-20, posting revenues of £135.4million

The figures represent a £400,000 increase on the same period for the previous year.

Commercial revenue was £80.4million, a 5.9 percent increase on the previous year.

But United are expecting 2020 annual revenue to be down this year to somewhere between £560-580million, compared to £627.1million for the year ending June 30, 2019.

In part that will be due to the club's lack of Champions League football this season. Broadcasting revenue for the quarter was £32.9million, a 23.1 percent and £9.9million drop on the same quarter the year before. The figures published on Monday cover the period July 1, 2019 to September 30 of this year.

One of the most eye-catching points on the balance sheet is the increase of net debt, from £247.2million to £384.5million, a rise of 55.5 per cent.

The club's wage bill has dropped by 8.8 per cent "primarily due to reductions in player salaries as a result of non-participation in the UEFA Champions League", the statement said.

United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said: "We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment.

"The significant investments that we have made in recent years in areas such as transfers, recruitment infrastructure, analytics and our academy are already beginning to bear fruit.

"We are very proud to be shortly approaching a milestone 4,000th game featuring an academy player, and we are particularly optimistic regarding the considerable young talent currently coming through.

"Our ultimate goal is to win trophies by playing exciting football with a team that fuses graduates from our academy with world-class acquisitions."