Manchester United’s squad for the 2022-23 season was the most expensive ever assembled in Europe, according to a report released by governing body Uefa, illustrating the task facing Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The “European Club Finance and Investment Landscape” report said United spent just over €1.42bn ($1.52bn) on the squad which played that season, surpassing the previous mark of €1.33bn spent by Real Madrid’s in 2020.
Erik ten Hag’s squad at the end of the 2022-23 season included big-money transfers Antony, Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Casemiro. United’s rivals Manchester City were second for that season with a squad value of €1.286bn.
The report, released on Wednesday, added that Real Madrid (€841m), Manchester City (€836m), Barcelona (€815m) and Paris St Germain (€807m) had the highest revenues in 2022.
The Premier League had nine teams in the top-20 earning clubs, with an average revenue of €323m.
Spain’s La Liga was second with revenues of €3.3bn, with Germany’s Bundesliga (€3.2bn), Italy’s Serie A (€2.4bn) and France’s Ligue 1 (€2bn) rounding out the top five.
“In 2022, the revenue of England’s 20 top-tier clubs was almost as high as the combined revenue of all 642 clubs in the bottom 50 countries,” the report said.
English clubs also made up 764 million euros of the combined €3.2bn of pre-tax losses recorded by clubs in 2022.
Uefa said the figures for pre-tax losses were positive “amid slowing wage inflation and renewed buoyancy in the transfer market”.
