Commercial income for football clubs is a way of life, and that’s as true for the likes of Man United as for those clubs lower down the pyramid.
The further you go in cup competitions – domestic or European – and the higher up the league you finish, the bigger the possibility of earning significant revenue from commercial partnerships.
One of the longest standing and most fruitful of those has been United’s kit partnership with Adidas.
Man United’s £10m penalty for UCL failure
Their current kit deal is worth £750 million but it expires in 2025, and owing to the Red Devils recent downturn in terms of consistent success, the manufacturers have significantly changed the new terms.
According to The Times (subscription required), Adidas will fine United £10m for each season that they don’t qualify for the Champions League.
It’s one more thing on a very long list of items that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team need to work through and ensure that the first-team never come close to falling foul of such a penalty clause.
Despite what might be considered to be a poor season by United’s standards in 2023/24, they are still in the FA Cup at the time of writing, and only just outside of the Champions League places.
Given how many injuries Erik ten Hag has had to deal with, there’s a cogent argument to suggest United would have done much better with a full complement of players throughout the campaign.