June 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Florida-based Glazer family taking full control of the Premier League club.
It was a deeply controversial takeover from the beginning because of the financial implications for United.
On 22 June 2005, the Glazer family paid £790m to buy out the club’s exiting shareholders and to remove the club from the London stock market.
But it was a deal mainly funded by borrowed money and loaded £604m in debts on to the club, which had previously had borrowings of only £50m.
The club’s board had warned, external in April 2005 about the dangers of this amount of debt, saying it was not “prudent” and risked “a downward spiral in both team and financial performance”.
The takeover provoked protests from fans, which continue to this day.
Calculations by Verify – based on an analysis of the club’s published accounts and stock market announcements – show that since the Glazer family’s acquisition of the club in June 2005 it has paid out:
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£815m in debt interest repayments
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£166m in dividends to shareholders
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£10m in management and administration fees to Glazer family companies
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£197m in external net debt repayments
This means that, in total, £1.187bn in cash left the club between 2005 and 2024 which it is reasonable to argue would not have done so in the absence of the Glazer takeover.
It is a conservative estimate, too, because it does not include various fees to banks, financial advisers and other financing costs, including currency hedging.
It also does not include the cash that has left the club in the form of directors’ fees.
Since the Glazers re-listed a portion of the club’s shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, £125m has also been paid out in compensation to the club’s directors.
Given half of the directors were Glazer family members, it’s likely half of this sum – about £63m – went to them.
Verify asked the club to comment on the findings and they said they would leave the accounts to speak for themselves.
