The world's richest soccer club Manchester United, which is being stalked by US billionaire Malcolm Glazer, reported a 54% fall in half-year profits due to lower media revenue from TV deals and European football.
Profits at one of England's top clubs, which is expected to get a formal takeover offer from Glazer in the next few weeks, also suffered after heavy spending on new players such as Wayne Rooney, Alan Smith and Gabriel Heinze.
United today said its pre-tax profits fell to £12.4m sterling for the six months to January 31 compared to a previous figure of £26.8m.
United warned last September of a profits fall of £14m this year because of a new Premier League broadcasting deal and the club's third-place finish last season which cut earnings from the European Champions League this season.
Glazer, who owns 28.8% of the club, is looking to structure of bid of 300 pence a share or £800m for United with a reduced level of debt after a previous highly leveraged deal at the same price was rejected by the board.
The success of any bid is dependent on the support of United's top shareholders - John Magnier and JP McManus - who own 28.9% and have held talks with Glazer in the past about the sale of their stake.
'A challenging first half to the year was made even more difficult by the continued speculation surrounding a possible offer for the company,' said CEO David Gill in the club's results statement.
The club added that strong matchday and commercial revenues largely offset the fall in media revenues to leave group turnover largely unchanged at £91.6m.
United added that wage costs rose to 46.6% of turnover compared to 40.8% in the previous first half due to the signing of new players, and new contracts for Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and team manager Alex Ferguson.
The 15-times English champions proposed a half-year dividend of 1.325 pence a share.
Earlier this month, the club slumped out of the lucrative European Champions League losing to AC Milan to miss out on the competition's quarter-final stage for the second year running.
