The net debt that has been accrued following the 2005 takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family has now reached over £1billion.

United published its second quarter financial results on Wednesday, with the club’s status as a Plc with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange seeing them release fiscal results every quarter.

The financial results for Q2 showed that United made a loss of £27.7million for the three months up to the end of December 2024, with total revenue at £198.7million compared to £225.8million for the corresponding period 12 months prior.

In those figures included a £10.4million pay-off to former boss Erik ten Hag upon his dismissal from the club in October, while ex-sporting director Dan Ashworth, who spent only five months in the role before being dispensed with, was paid a £4million severance in what was a staggeringly wasteful financial move from United.

Among the details in the quarterly report showed a net finance cost of £37.6million, a sum related to interest on club borrowing, and one that took United’s net cumulative interest paid since the Glazers acquired the club in controversial circumstances back in 2005, to over £1billion, as per football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

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United claims that the significant interest was due to an ‘unfavourable swing in exchange rates resulting in unrealised losses on unhedged USD (dollar) borrowings in the current year quarter’. The net finance cost for the corresponding quarter from the previous year had been £300,000.

The Glazer family financed the £750million purchase of United via a leveraged buyout, where debt was raised against the club to fund the deal, a move that has remained a hugely unpopular decision among United fans, with the Glazers having been deeply unpopular owners due to ladening the club with so much debt.

The interest on that debt has grown over the years, and the cumulative interest cost on that deal has now tipped over the £1billion mark, with that interest paid being money that could have gone back into the club, at least in some way, had it been financed personally by the Glazers.

Back in 2023, Premier League clubs voted to end fully leveraged buyouts, capping them at 65% of a club’s value instead in a bid to stop others from using the funding solution that the Glazers used, which saw them avoid having to put any of their own personal wealth into the deal.

During the first five years, after the Glazers had used expensive payment-in-kind loans to finance their takeover, interest payments often topped £40m per season, with the club paying rates of more than 16% at the time.

Back in 2015 the debt was restructured to make servicing the debt more manageable and less impactful when it came to transfer spending. But in nearly 20 years of Glazer ownership the interest paid has now reached eye-watering levels, and the club are further away from competitive success than they have been for many years, facing potential PSR pressures and a bloated wage bill that will be a challenge to manage unless the club returns to Champions League football soon and manages to keep commercial revenues heading in the right direction despite the brand being challenged.