Manchester United's Worst-Ever League Finish Came With a £480m Debt Problem
A dismal 15th-place finish was rescued only by a run to the Europa League final. United's accounts show a club paying heavily for years of decisions made off the pitch.
In the 2024-25 season covered by these accounts, Manchester United finished 15th in the Premier League, their lowest-ever finish in the competition's history, with Erik ten Hag replaced by Ruben Amorim midway through a chaotic campaign that also included heavy job cuts across the club's operations. The one bright spot was a run to the Europa League final, lost 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao.
Turnover barely moved, up around 1% to roughly £675m, a flat outcome for a club of United's size, while a pre-tax loss of about £30m reflects both compensation payments tied to the managerial change and the ongoing cost of restructuring under new minority owner INEOS and its sporting leadership.
The more alarming figure sits below the headline result. Estimated borrowings of around £480m, alongside interest payments of roughly £60m for the year, show the long-term cost of the debt-financed ownership structure still weighing on the club, regardless of who's picking the team on a Saturday.
Staff costs of around £350m against a turnover of £675m point to a wage bill still calibrated for a squad competing at the top of the table rather than one finishing in the bottom half, a mismatch the club's new leadership has repeatedly flagged as unsustainable.
For a club that generates elite-level revenue almost by default, the accounts make clear that United's problems in 2024-25 went well beyond results on the pitch.
INEOS's cost-cutting programme, including widely reported redundancies across football and non-football staff, was framed by the club as a necessary reset after years of what new leadership called unsustainable spending. Whether that reset shows up as an improved set of accounts, or an improved league position, is the test United now face in the seasons that follow.
Plans for a new stadium to replace the ageing Old Trafford, championed by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, add a further long-term financial dimension to a club already carrying significant debt, meaning the accounts of the next several years are likely to remain shaped as much by boardroom decisions as by results on the pitch.
United's worst-ever league finish came in a year when the accounts confirmed the debt built up around the club is now as big a story as anything happening on the pitch.