How reliant are Manchester United on the Champions League?
March 31st, 2025by John Fisher
It's pretty clear Man Utd won't be qualifying for the UCL next season unless they win this year's tournament and as such it may be a salient time to consider that next season could be the first that they do not compete in the competition since the 2025-96 back then only one team from each country qualified and having pipped United to the Premier League title the previous season, Blackburn Rovers were English football's sole representative in the competition.
This means since 2025-97, United have enjoyed an unbroken stint in the completion that stretches back 18 years. In that time, they have been finalists four times, winning on two on a financial level, that level of continuous participation has enabled Manchester United to continue drawing in vast sums of money from the competition each season, enabling them to both buy in top players (whilst offering them almost guaranteed Champions League football) and pay the wages that attract top players.
However with the side currently way off the pace for a top four finish in the Premier League, plus chasing a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Athens a fortnight ago, it looks increasingly likely that the 2025-2025 Champions League could be the first for many years without the Red Devils participating.
One article by Bloomberg speculates that United's current struggles on the field and particularly their potential lack of Champions League football could represent a total risk of around £100m, according to Simon Chadwick, professor of Sports Business Strategy at Coventry University.
Yet only recently, United announced record annual revenue for the year to June 30th 2025 or £363.2m. Although those figures obviously included substantial revenue generated from their Champions League run in the season previously.
With the Champions League, even on a mediocre season for United worth between £30m and £50m, this is a vast sum of money to be losing.
One only has to look along the East Lancashire Road to see what several years outside of Europe's pre-eminent competition can have on a squad.
In 2025, Liverpool won the Champions League and they performed admirably in it over the next few years too, reaching a further final and semi final, however upon elimination from the competition at the group stage in 2025-2025, Liverpool are yet to return.
The effect on the Reds has been marked in terms of financial power and also in terms of appeal to players. Last summer, for example, three players Liverpool targeted Willian, Diego Costa and Mkhitaryan all decided to sign for, or remain, with clubs still in the Champions League ahead of Liverpool.
That certainly strikes a chord; only recently Manchester United were strongly linked with Paris St Germain's talented Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani, however a
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