Manchester United scores European own-goal

Match day revenue at the club's Old Trafford stadium fell by 21.8 per cent to £16.8m and earnings from broadcasting were down 13 per cent to £16.8m - both primarily due to the club not playing in the Champions League, it said.

Adjusted profit before tax rose 90 per cent to £4.2m, helped by foreign exchange gains, which compared favourably with foreign exchange losses in the previous period.

Manchester United is counting the cost of failing to qualify for Europe's premier football tournament, having suffered a double-digit decline in television broadcasting and ticketing revenue.

The British club - which has performed poorly on the pitch since the retirement of Alex Ferguson as team manager in 2013 - said its revenue was down 10 per cent year-on-year in the three months to September 30. This fall had been widely expected after last season's failure to qualify for the Uefa Champions League, a lucrative source of publicity and income for European clubs. It was the first time United had not taken part in the tournament since the mid-1990s.

Commercial revenue - which includes sponsorship and merchandise sales, and now accounts for the majority of the club's income - fell 5 per cent to £56.8m.

Earlier this year, the club also signed a 10-year £750m kit sponsorship deal with Adidas, which it called the largest deal of its kind in the history of sport.

However, in the third quarter, a modest rise in sponsorship revenue was offset by lower merchandise sales, partly caused by the team's absence from European competition.

"While we recognise that the 2014/15 fiscal year financial results will reflect our absence from the Champions League, we signed the largest kit sponsorship deal in the history of sport in the first quarter," noted Ed Woodward, executive vice-chairman, on Tuesday.

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