UNITED NOT WORRIED BY DEBTS

Manchester United are one of the most successful football clubs in the world and they certainly do not seem to be worried about the spiralling debts.

In a recent interview given by the Chief Executive David Gill, Manchester United may have significant debts due to the purchase made by the Glazer family in 2005, but they have enough income in the form of TV revenue and various other venues to service the debt. Recently, Manchester United managed to bring down their debts – that were in the region of almost £ 1 billion – to just around £ 500 million.

UEFA will be introducing the FairPlay regulation rules from 2013 onwards, which will demand clubs to make only around £ 35 million of losses over a three-year period. David Gill believes that Manchester United will be able to comfortably meet this requirement by UEFA.

David Gill also said that it is the structure of the Premier league that makes English football extremely competitive when compared with other leagues across the world like Spain. For example, he quoted the fact that Manchester United received only £ 60 million for winning the Premier league title last season, while the bottom team received a £ 40 million. This gap is much more profound in Spain.

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TV THE MAIN INCOME

It is a well-known fact that Manchester United are one of the greatest football club in the world and a majority of their income comes from the TV money. Of course, being the champion of England numerous times in the last few years certainly helps.

Manchester United on TV is a very much normal occasion, as they are pretty much on TV throughout the weekend. One of the most recent matches in which Manchester United attracted a lot of TV viewers was in the FA Cup fourth-round match against Liverpool. Manchester United are coming into the match after having beaten Manchester City in a thrilling encounter.

The third round fixture between the two Manchester clubs ended in a 3-2 win for Manchester United, which has boosted the expectations for the match against Liverpool– another arch rival for Manchester United. One of the things that has spiced up the encounter is the record Manchester United have been having at Anfield in recent seasons. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has not left Anfield with a win since 2006. As expected, Manchester United again struggled against Liverpool in the match. Manchester United finally ended up losing 2-1 to a Liverpool side that was missing Luis Suarez.

However, the match has turned out to be a huge commercial success for Manchester United due to the TV income that it has generated. It has been estimated that around 6 million viewers tuned in to watch the match. The Saturday’s FA Cup match between the two great clubs was seen by around 6 million viewers during the peak time. The match was shown on both ITV1 HD and ITV1. Compared to this, the match between Sunderland and Middlesbrough attracted only 4 million viewers on Sunday. The Manchester United match had a market share of 32.1 percentage on ITV1.

MANCINI: TV TIMES MAY HURT US

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said that the TV Times are causing a lot of problems for Manchester City. Manchester city are currently leading the Barclays Premier League by three points and are one of the favourites to lift the title alongside Manchester United.

However, they have been slipping from their strong position of late, as Roberto Mancini has accused the TV companies of maximising their revenue without taking into consideration the affect it has on the teams. Mancini is not the first manager to criticised the TV times of the clubs, as Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said in the past that the deal with the TV companies is both beneficial and problematic.

Manchester city looked on course for their first title in the Premier League when they were leading the Premier League by five points. However, their crucial match against Chelsea was rescheduled for Monday night in order to accommodate television requests. Manchester City lost the match 2-1 and their form has nosedived since then. Not only did Manchester City lose their first match of the season, but they have also lost their first home game after nearly 2 years. Manchester City had only 48 hours to prepare for the clash with Liverpool and it is something that has infuriated Roberto Mancini.

“I’m disappointed only because we play on the Sunday, January 1, away to Sunderland at 3pm, and then against Liverpool on the third. Liverpool play on the Friday night, the 30th, at home to Newcastle and then against us. I think that makes it easier for others,” Roberto Mancini said with regard to the fixture list for other teams in comparison with Manchester City. He has said that clubs need more than just two days of rest in order to be ready for the opponents.