 | |
Man Utd | Millwall |
| Turnover |
| The world’s biggest club bring in a whopping £81m in the six months to 31 January, 2002. | London’s seventh-ranked team pull in just £4.2m in the six months to 30 November, 2001. |
| Net profit |
| Matching results on the pitch with success off it, United rake in £31m, more than enough for a free round of prawn sandwiches for all their fans. | Despite the push for promotion to the Premiership, Millwall directors have to be content with a humble £24,000 - scarcely enough to buy David Beckham’s left toe nail. |
| Wages |
| The price of top talent is a £34m wage bill at Old Trafford. Top earners include Roy Keane at a reported £90,000 a week, while Beckham is poised to net a similar amount. | Millionaires are thinner on the ground at the New Den, where the wages total £2.6m. Some squad players may not make as much in a year as United’s aristocrats earn in a week. |
| Wages as % of turnover |
| Expected to hit 50% for the year as a whole - compared to 39% in 2000/01 - but currently at the 42% level. This ratio has prompted United to warn of a second-half slow-down in profits. | Worryingly high at 62%. If Manchester United are going to struggle to turn a profit at 50%, it could prove an impossible task at an even higher percentage for the south London club. |
| TV income as % of turnover |
| Estimated to be 30%. Chief executive Peter Kenyon does not believe a revision of the existing TV deal should affect his club too drastically. "We must separate the Premier League product from that of the Football League. United remains the most popular draw both domestically and internationally." | Figure not known, but chairman Theo Paphitis expects at least a third of Football League clubs to go out of business if the current TV deal falls through. "Players will not get paid. They will not be able to pay their mortgages, bills, school fees or whatever else." |
| Net earnings from transfers |
| More than £16m. When you can afford to offload players like Jaap Stam and still reach the Champions League quarter-finals, the bank manager is going to have a smile on his face. | Less than £1m. Quite simply, Millwall do not have sufficient player assets to be able to offload stars and still get promoted to the lucrative top flight. |
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