The Glazers
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When Malcolm Glazer started investing in United in March 2003, he was the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an American football team that had won the Super Bowl at the time.
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, United was one of the most successful clubs in the world at the time, dominating the Premier League and taking home numerous awards.
This all started to change once the Glazers gained control.
In June 2005, Glazer assumed complete ownership of United, but because the acquisition was mostly funded by loans secured against the club’s assets, it was extremely unpopular with supporters.
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It put the club in debt, and BBC Verify discovered that over the following 20 years, roughly £1.2 billion was spent on interest payments, debt repayments, dividends, and family fees.
The Glazers borrowed millions of pounds from hedge funds to finance the transaction, leaving the club in debt by £604 million.
After a year, the club had already paid the Glazer family £53.2 million in fees and loan interest to its lenders.
Based on an examination of the club’s publicly available financial statements and stock market announcements, calculations conducted by BBC Verify reveal that since the Glazer family purchased the team in June 2005, it has distributed:
£815m in debt interest repayments
£166m in dividends to shareholders
£10m in management and administration fees to Glazer family companies
£197m in external net debt repayment
It is fair to say that the club would not have lost £1.187 billion in cash between 2005 and 2024 if the Glazer purchase had not occurred.
The club told BBC Verify that they would let the accounts do the talking when they were asked to comment on the results.
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How much have the Glazers invested themselves into the club?
According to the accounts, the Glazers contributed £273 million of their own funds in addition to mostly using borrowed funds to purchase the club in 2005.
But since then, they haven’t made any personal investments.
The club’s own internally generated funds as well as debt secured on the club’s ownership shares and directly on the club itself have been used to invest in the team.
The family’s investment has yielded significant returns as well.
The Glazer family sold £555 million worth of club shares between 2012 and 2022, including the proceeds from a £150 million 2012 listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Although £71 million was used to partially settle the debt they took out to purchase the club, £484 million of the sale earnings went directly to them.
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