Only Cristiano Ronaldo's world record transfer prevented Manchester United making an annual loss of more than £30m, figures released by the English Premier League champions have shown.
United declared a pre-tax profit of £48.2m for the year up to June 30 2009. But without the departure of Portuguese winger Ronaldo, sold to Real Madrid for £80m, the Old Trafford club would have been reporting a a loss of £31.8m.
The club's figure also showed they had paid £41.9m in interest on a huge loan of £509.5m. Turnover was up to £278.5m from £256.2m a year earlier.
United's figures were released at the same time as the club announced plans to refinance its debts by raising £500m through a bond issue.
Many supporters groups were concerned by the huge amount of debt the club were saddled with as a result of the takeover by United's current owners, the US-based Glazer family, in 2005 and the bond move is an attempt to rebalance United's finances.
The incentive for investors is that they will in turn receive an attractive rate of interest over seven years in addition to getting their initial investment back from United.
Last week United manager Sir Alex Ferguson moved to quell fans' fears that the club's debts were preventing him from signing new players with the Scot insisting the decision not to spend three-quarters of the money received for Ronaldo was his alone.
