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 £9m in annual shirt sponsorship revenue. To add to the cup of woe, Sky's incentive to pay a premium to secure monopoly domestic TV rights from 2006 could be removed by the European Commission.
However, unlike the disastrous borrowing that overwhelmed Leeds United, the Glazers' £275m in short-term loans from three New York hedge funds does not become a stranglehold in the absence of immediate success.
Yet if the business fails to meet 85 per cent of its target operating profits by July 2007, the funds can appoint 25 per cent of the directors to the parent company and its affiliates. In 2010 if the notes are not paid in full, 30 per cent of Manchester United will belong to Perry Capital, Citadel Horizon and Ochs-Ziff.
In the short term the club is robust enough to withstand any shortfall in income but no amount of marketing gimmickry can make up for continued failure on the park.
Last night Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of "rebuilding" his team as if this was 1986. But
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| Ferguson spoke of “rebuilding” the team. But the Glazers can’t afford to indulge him indefinitely |
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every day the debt is building, and the likelihood of the Glazers forwarding more money to the man who in recent years has spent £50m on the long-gone Juan Sebastien Veron, Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Fabien Barthez, David Bellion and Diego Forlan recedes.
Ferguson's considerable achievements mean little now; the Glazers cannot afford to indulge him indefinitely. Now, for the first time since 1993, when he broke the hoodoo and won Manchester United's first championship since 1967, Alex Ferguson will be judged by the same criteria as his peers. 
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 8
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