Thread by @shaunconnolly85

The situation with the Glazers and the dividends at #manutd explained 🧵

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you'll know that £11 million has been taken from the club in dividends. How are they doing this and what are the implications? I'm going to highlight all ⬇️

To begin with, we need to look at revenue. For those of you who are unaware of what this is, it’s essentially the total income generated by the sale of goods or services relating to a company’s operations. Manchester United generates money, or at least it used to ⬇️

Taking a sample period, United’s revenue grew consistently from 2012 to 2019. Meaning, year on year, the club was profitable. Since 2019, the club has decreased in revenue. At one stage, revenue trumped £620m. As of 2021, it's dropped below £500m. How is this? ⬇️

We’ve obviously endured COVID and that will account for a %. However, a larger proportion stems from inadequate commercial activity (sponsorships) and disgraceful investment which leads to inadequate performances on the pitch.

“United are not attractive anymore”

⬇️

As I’ve recently discussed on @Strettycast, with my friends @ODonnellDale & @DaytrippingRed, we’ve moved past a stage of being able to say “we’re Man Utd”. What we’re now witnessing is the fallout of a decade of underperformance. Potential sponsors are no longer interested ⬇️

So, when we factor poor performances on the pitch (and commercially), a lack of progression in major competitions and a lack of investment from quality sponsors, we inevitably see the decrease in annual revenue.

What has this got to do with dividends you ask? ⬇️

To those of you who are not entirely sure what a dividend is:

It’s essentially a sum of money paid by a company to its shareholders out of the company profits.

Businesses generally do this. Football clubs generally don’t.

That last line is important ⬇️

Dividends paid out:

The largest payout made was in 2010 and this saw £266m leave in dividends

Since 2016, there have been dividend payouts of £122m

We saw £11m leave this week.

Do you see a trend? The figure is getting smaller. Why? ⬇️

If a company is allowed to pay dividends based on profits, how are the Glazers paying dividends if the club isn’t profitable?

As you move through different regions, different laws and legislations exist. The dividends accessed now are based on previous years - 5/6 years ago. ⬇️

When you base your ethos on “playing performance doesn't really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business”, surely you can excel on the commercial aspect? Well, that’s not the case, is it? ⬇️

For a club that has cocked its chest out and roared about commercial domination, they’ve decreased on shirt sponsorship, stumbled in attempts to attract perennial suitors and now fallen below City in the @deloitte money league. Could the performances actually have a bearing 🤔

It’s well documented that the club struggle to sell players. This is an amalgamation of wages paid, as well as purchasing the incorrect player who’s value inevitably decreases through underperforming on the pitch. The result of empowering money men to handle football matters. ⬇️

The club has not made a profit in recent years and the performances are getting worse. I know it’s clickbait, but in what world should a player need to choose between Brentford and United? Without profits, where do dividends come from? ⬇️

I’m aware that people may move toward the ownership utilising personal assets - such as company vehicles, property or travel etc, but this simply will not equate to the same monetary value as the dividends they’re accustomed to. ⬇️

People often ask if protests are the solution and the answer is yes! The protests and review focus of sponsors have seen some results. Whatever you make of Richard Arnold’s televised cameo, he was not lying about the protests harming commercial revenue. Protests MUST continue ⬇️

The club have disregarded the fan base for far too long and the focus on commercial-led campaigns is beginning to falter. We are contributing to this and we must continue. Hurt them in their pockets, it’s all they’ll understand.

UTFR 🇾🇪

As expected, Mike has grasped onto a trending United take and set his minions upon me. What's amusing is that despite this topic being based on dividends, they're hell-bent on dragging it into talks about Solskjær.

This is the definition of toxic #MUFC football Twitter