FIGURES RELEASED BY Manchester United for the financial year ended 30 June 2011 have shown that the club has paid its owners, the Glazer family, over £16.1m in three years in “management fees”.
The Glazer family were paid fees of £6m for the 2011 financial year, £4.325m in 2010, and a little under £3m in 2009.
SLP Partners – a company also controlled by the Glazer family – was also paid £2.9m in consultancy fees in 2010.
United were not obliged to disclose the payments under previous accounting rules, and had accordingly opted not to do so.
However, the change in Premier League financial rules meant they were subsequently forced to publicly own up to these figures.
The new figures mean the total cost of the Glazers’ ownership of the club since their takeover has come to £532m. By comparison, the dividend payments prior to their takeover, between 1991 and 2005, amounted to £62.6million.
The accounts also reveal that Kevin Glazer, who is a non-executive member of the club’s board of directors, and his immediate family own $10.6m worth of the club’s bonds – essentially a form of IOU which allows it to borrow cash from investors.
Those bonds pay an interest interest rate of 8.375 per cent – meaning Kevin’s family earned £379,180 in interest from the club last year.
The family have consistently come under criticism from United supporters after they borrowed hundreds of millions of pounds to finance their purchase of United in 2005 – and then transferred that debt to the club, which had been debt-free before then.
Ticket prices were increased by over 42 per cent following their takeover, which led fans to protest against the owners.
Additional reporting: Gavan Reilly
You can view the full figures here>
Read: UEFA overturn Andrews’ yellow card ahead of Estonia clash>
Read: Well that hasn’t gone so well: The summer signings that haven’t sparked>
h/t@andersred
