The Madrid club, who are so hungry for glory actually made a profit of $525 million (£350 million, €385 million) for the 2008/09 season. However that was before they paid out no less than $475 million (€350 million, £318 million) on the cream of players from all over Europe to make a squad that would try and take some of the glory from their arch rivals Barcelona.
Barcelona had a great season last year, winning every competition that they took part in; including La Liga and the Champions League, leaving Real’s trophy room completely bare. In third place was Manchester United who lost out in the Champions League final to Barcelona, but gained a healthy £55 million profit when they sold superstar Christiano Ronaldo. Christiano has now donned the famous all white of Real Madrid, one of the most well known soccer uniforms on the global stage. Filling his boots as the king pin of Manchester United these days is Wayne Rooney, who looks like he might be knocking both Christiano and Lionel Messi of their perch to become the World’s top footballer.
Manchester’s season seems to be moving into top gear just at the right time, and last Sunday’s Carling Cup final win as again a fine display of not so silky football, played with a lot of grit. The icing on the cake was Wayne Rooney coming off the bench to score the winning goal with a header. While statistics are not readily available, soccer pundits are saying that Wayne has scored more goals with his head in the last month than in all the rest of his career put together.
While there are happy times on the field for Man-U these days, they certainly don’t have their problems to seek off it. And it all comes down to money. The problems began in 2005, when the club was taken over by US billionaire Malcolm Glazer who had made his fortune running American football teams. Glazer paid out around $1.2 billion ( £800 million) for the club, which was largely financed by borrowing, meaning that huge amounts of interest has being paid out every year since then. According to the most recent accounts released in January, United’s debt burdens have increased to around one billion dollars (£716.5 million) with close to $100 million (£68.5 million) paid out in interest during 2009 alone.
The fans say that these huge interest payments has begun to sap the club’s ability to buy the top players that will keep them at the forefront, both at home as well as in Europe. Signs of the fan’s dissatisfaction at the Glazer’s running or the club have become increasingly apparent with many fans giving up wearing their favourite red soccer uniforms. Instead they have begun to wave green and gold scarves and banners, which were the colours of Newton Heath. Newton Heath was a simple football club who changed their name to Manchester United more than a century ago. United’s fans are calling out for a return to the days where soccer was more a sport and less of a business. Let’s hope they succeed!
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