A record year despite an empty trophy cabinet in Europe
No Champions League money. No Europa League run. Manchester United still closed the 2025-26 financial year with the biggest revenue in the club’s history: £677.6m, up from £666.5m twelve months earlier.
The pre-tax loss actually grew, from £33m to £43m. But operating profit told a different story, swinging from an £18.4m loss to a £22.6m profit, with EBITDA up 18.4% year on year.
CEO Omar Berrada framed it as proof of a longer plan finally paying off. “This shows the direct impact of the work we have been doing over the past two years,” he said, adding the club would “continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable.”
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Carrick’s turnaround and cost cuts did the heavy lifting
Two forces explain the numbers. Commercially, United’s brand pulled in sponsorship and partnership revenue that barely blinked at missing Europe. On the pitch, interim boss Michael Carrick steadied a sinking ship, winning 11 of his 16 games in charge and dragging United to a third-place Premier League finish that unlocked a bigger broadcast pot.
Behind the scenes, the club had already trimmed headcount and costs over the previous two years, a squeeze that started paying off exactly when the football briefly went right. Ruben Amorim’s move to AC Milan also saved United more than £8m in compensation, a detail buried in the report but worth real money to the bottom line.
The stadium is the next chapter
United have also secured the land for a proposed 100,000-seat stadium, the clearest sign yet that this financial reset is about more than one good balance sheet. With Champions League football back on the calendar for 2026-27, next year’s numbers should look very different again, for better or worse depending on how far United go.
Berrada’s message was blunt: financing ambition with debt and hope is over. Whether Old Trafford’s new stadium plans survive that discipline is the question United now have to answer.
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