Stefan Borson reveals Sir Jim Ratcliffe facing new Man United problem
Manchester United have received “warning signs” following their latest sponsorship issues at Old Trafford.
Man United have missed out on sponsorship deals as a result of their disappointing on-field performances over the past year, having finished 15th in the Premier League table last season.
Marriott International – the world’s largest hotel company – decided not to extend its sponsorship deal with Ruben Amorim’s side after it expired at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
Man United are also currently without a training kit partner after their Tezos deal, which was worth at least £20million a year, came to an end this summer.
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Man United’s sponsorship revenue has been static for the past five years.
How much commercial revenue do Man United generate?
Man United have smashed their club-record revenue after their 2024-25 accounts revealed their turnover increased from £661.8m to £666.5m.
That figure was boosted by Man United’s significant uplift in commercial revenue, which improved from £302.9m in 2023-24 to £333.3m last season.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “While United continue to be commercially attractive, there are still warning signs about the financial situation, including on the sponsorship side.
“We know they don’t have a training kit sponsor anymore after the Tezos expiry, and we’ve spoken before about the loss of partners like Marriott, Melita and some of the others.
“Now, they have filled the gaps slightly with some of the other partnerships and it’s always going to be fluid.
“But if you were to go into the accounts and you had a look at sponsorship really over the last period, you can go back in the previous set of accounts and you can review where the sponsorship money has gone over time, you would see that sponsorship money for the last sort of five years has been fairly static.”
Man United are joined by multiple other Premier League clubs who are also struggling to improve their spornsorship revenue.
Man United and Chelsea facing sponsorship challenges
Chelsea continue to play without a front-of-shirt sponsor, having so far failed to agree a deal with any interested parties.
Borson said: “This is not just a Manchester United issue. This is an issue across the Premier League in many ways, despite its success.
“We know about the situation at Chelsea, but it’s replicated across the league and will be a challenge next season when we’ve not got the betting sponsors.
“Just as an example, United doing £188m for the year just gone on sponsorship was actually slightly less than they did in 2023.
“It was a small increase on 2024, but these are not sort of unique numbers, and they’re not showing the sort of growth that they probably want to show from sponsorship revenue, so there’s a challenge there.”
While Man United continue to face challenges commercially, their latest accounts revealed the club’s losses dropped from £113.2m in 2023-24 to £33m last season.
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