One of Manchester United’s significant co-owners Avram Glazer reportedly claimed that the club can still generate commercial revenue regardless of sporting success, making it even clearer how little incentive there is to turn around the dire form of this listing behemoth.

United are one of the most valuable soccer clubs in the world and rank among the richest sports franchises across all disciplines despite more than a decade of sustained sporting heartache. Since the retirement of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, England’s most successful Premier League champions have not even been in a title race, let alone added to their collection of the most precious silverware.

After cycling through seven managers in 13 years, current incumbent Michael Carrick has been teetering on the brink of his own exit. That his job may have been saved by one chaotic Champions League comeback—inspired as much by Roma’s ineptitude as United’s rare break from inertia—is a testament to the muddled approach carried out in Ferguson’s absence.

The Glazer family, which has had a majority stake in the club since orchestrating a hotly controversial leveraged buyout in 2005, has been pilloried by fans accusing them of seeing United as nothing more than an investment vehicle to line their own pockets. Former defender Paul Parker famously called his old club “the highest-profile ATM machine in world football.”

That reputation has not been enhanced by Avram Glazer’s insistence to a room full of investors at Deutsche Bank’s inaugural Sports Investment Conference that United “are not dependent on success on the pitch for commercial power,” to use the phrasing carried by The Athletic.

Glazer is thought to have compared United in this regard to NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB royalty the New York Yankees. Both franchises can point to the same storied historical success as Manchester United without being able to celebrate many fresh triumphs. It’s been 17 years since the Yankees last won the World Series, which looks recent compared to the Cowboys’ Super Bowl stretching from 1995.

To Glazer’s point, despite their modern struggles, both the Cowboys and the Yankees are ranked by the influential financial magazine Forbes as the most valuable franchises in their respective sports. Manchester United only trail Real Madrid using the same metric across the soccer sphere. However, it isn’t quite so straightforward.

Why Avram Glazer Is Wrong

Avram Glazer is no stranger to angering Manchester United fans. The first game he and his brother Joel attended at Old Trafford after their father Malcolm’s completion of the takeover in 2005 prompted chants from the home crowd of “Die, Glazers, die!”

Yet, on this occasion, the divisive co-owner has proven to be incendiary and incorrect.

Glazer’s comments echo a point made by United’s former bumbling executive Ed Woodward, who infamously told a shareholder: “Playing performance doesn’t really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business.”

That was in 2018 and, given the club’s accounts at the time, came with some justification. All the sporting competence which walked out of the door with Ferguson and his trusted ally on the board, David Gill, was replaced by Woodward’s unrivaled ability to ensnare commercial partnerships. While United failed to find a reliable goalscorer or commanding defensive midfielder with Woodward at the helm, they did secure an exclusive pillow and mattress partner.

Between Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 and Woodward’s comments five years later, United’s annual commercial revenue had shot up from around $240 million to $360 million. At that point, the club comfortably dwarfed the rest of the Premier League for off-field income despite spending more seasons outside the top four than in it. The rot, however, had already set in.

United’s commercial revenue swelled to a world-leading €364 million ($407 million at today’s rates) in 2016, per Deloitte. According to 2025 accounts, the Red Devils booked €397 million ($444 million), less than Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and (with an asterisk) Manchester City.

While the club still ranks as one of the most powerful commercial beasts in soccer, Glazer has missed the point that the club’s dire results on the pitch have seen everyone else catch up (or surpass) them.

Across the decade since 2016, United’s revenue has increased by 9%. Arsenal and Liverpool, by comparison, have harnessed their ever-improving results to more than double their commercial power. Over the same period, Tottenham Hotspur’s income has exploded by 323%.

Premier League Commercial Revenue Growth Since 2016

United have wasted a golden opportunity to make even more golden handshakes than they already have done. Perhaps if the Glazers are presented with this glaring reality, their stance may belatedly shift.