Manchester United 'would have breached PSR last season' but received two 'exceptional' concessions

Manchester United were at risk of breaching the Profit and Sustainability Rules if it were not for special allowances, according to a football finance expert.

The Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) continue to wreak havoc on a host of top-flight clubs, some of whom have considerable restrictions imposed in the current transfer window.

Clubs must comply with the PSR, which allows them to incur certain losses over a three-year period. These losses are calculated up to 30 June and allow Premier League clubs to lose a maximum of £105m over three years or £35m per season.

The violations of the rules have been serious. Everton and Nottingham Forest Both were hit with respective point deductions last season.

Leicester City They are another team facing potential sanctions for their financial dealings over the past two seasons.

The Foxes remain at risk of a significant points deduction in what is already shaping up to be a tough task to avoid relegation.

Newcastle are in a difficult situation, having to raise funds to meet the PSR, while Aston Villa are in a similar position despite qualifying for the Champions League.

However, questions have been raised over Manchester United's stance on PSR, who have also had their hands tied in the transfer market in recent seasons.

Recent investment from minority shareholders INEOS has seen United spend almost £100m on signings Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee this summer.

But financial expert Stefan Borson believes United have been spared a similar fate to other clubs found guilty of breaching the PSR.

“United is very interesting because we have quite a bit of information on United from their quarterly report in the US and we know that we've been told that the end-of-year results will be £660m turnover and around £140m EBITDA,” Borson told talkSPORT.

“It also tells us a few things about their costs. The bottom line is that if you reduce that figure to the three-year assessment, United would have failed last season’s PSR, save for two things.

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“One, apparently, they were given an exceptional £40m Covid allowance in 2022, which no other club had.

“The most any other club received that year was around a million pounds. We don’t know how they got it.

“On top of that, they appear to have been given an allowance of around £35m of exceptional costs relating to the sale of shares to (INEOS chief executive Sir Jim) Ratcliffe, which, to be fair, the Glazers should have paid themselves anyway, given that they were the main beneficiaries.

“But we know from the numbers that it was £35m and the only way they can achieve the 23/24 PSR numbers and this is not just my opinion but the opinion of a number of people who run the numbers, is by having these allocations.

“Concessions are relatively rare in the game.”

Borson was sympathetic to the plight of Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa following their revelation of Manchester United.

Previously affected clubs are not out of the woods yet and further difficulties are anticipated throughout the new season, and Borson has highlighted what he believes is an uneven playing field.

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“I think in the Premier League, when Newcastle had to rush on June 29 and 30 to sell players, they later discovered that, in fact, United had made exceptional concessions,” Borson explained.

“And we've had a season where Everton have had all their problems and continue to have them with the capitalisation problem still to come next season.

“Of course, Nottingham Forest were not allowed to take part in the promotion. All of those things were not allowed, but United were given subsidies for Covid and probably for the exceptional costs of selling shares.”