Manchester United are budgeting for no Champions League football for the next four years, according to reports.
As per Telegraph Sport, the Red Devils’ finances have historically been calculated on the assumption that the club would reach the Champions League knockout stages.
But as the new reality sets in, it has emerged that the United hierarchy “have accounted for the prospect of the club missing out on European qualification this season.”
An unlikely Europa League win is the only hope of bringing European football to Old Trafford next season, with a place in the Champions League the big reward for the competition winner regardless of their position in their domestic league.
Telegraph Sport claims that budgeting going forward has been “calculated under the assumption that United qualify for the Europa League for the next four years” in what is described as “a marked change” from previous budgets which have always had Champions League revenue in mind.
The newspaper notes that this unrealistic budgeting caused “concern and unease” amongst staff who were “fearful of the financial implications and knock-on effect on jobs” if the club failed to secure European qualification.
This comes against a backdrop of co-owners INEOS showing no signs of slowing their brutal job cuts, with United announcing last week that there would be up to a further 200 redundancies on top of the 250 from last summer.
The problems facing United’s accountants are making almost as many headlines as those giving manager Ruben Amorim sleepless nights.
But the decision to recalibrate budgeting going forward, which the report calls “a more prudent approach”, at least indicates some joined-up thinking in a club which seems in the depths of mismanagement.
It is painfully obvious that United are a million miles away from Champions League football right now, and the news that budgets have long been determined based on reaching the quarter-finals of that competition shows the disconnect between the on and off-field activity; the Red Devils have only made it that far twice since 2013.
Nevertheless, being realistic and being successful are very different things, something Amorim is realizing more and more each day after his latest admission that the club must sell to buy this summer.
Telegraph Sport note that “the prospect of no income from European football next season would further reduce their room for manoeuvre in the transfer window”.
United face Real Sociedad on Thursday in the first leg of their Round of 16 Europa League tie, a game which has taken on even more importance following their unceremonious exit from the FA Cup on Sunday.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social
Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
