GILL DISMISSES DEBT CONCERNS

Manchester United chief executive David Gill is adamant the Red Devils are in good shape even though they had a plan to refinance their massive debts earlier this year.

Experts acting on behalf of the Glazer family looked into the possibility of restructuring borrowings which are believed to be in the region of £660million, in order to reduce an eye-bulging annual interest payment of £62million.

The move was thwarted when the cost of borrowing rose, forcing United to stick with their present financial structures.

However, Gill was keen to point out that the move was instigated purely because of advantageous conditions in the debt market at that time rather than any urgent need for financial flexibility.

Opponents of the Glazer regime have consistently attacked the Americans for landing United in so much debt and have repeated challenged the owners to outline exactly how they intend to make the payments.

However, United are currently enjoying a huge uplift in revenue, due partly to the club's renewed on-field success under Sir Alex Ferguson but also because of increased sponsorship, including a four-year shirt deal with banking giant AIG worth £56.5million.

In addition, a new TV deal comes into force this season, which saw a 67% increase on domestic rights alone.

Little wonder therefore that Gill is so bullish about United's current position.

"There is no issue whatsoever," he argued.

"The financial structure we have in place at the moment is a long-term structure.

"Given where the debt market was two or three months ago, we looked at the opportunity of improving those financial structures to get the costs down a bit more.

"There was some turbulence in the debt market which meant the refinancing has not gone through. But I stress, it was an opportunity as opposed to having a requirement to do it.

"The club is in good shape financially this year and 2007 will see significant increases in revenue and profits."

Taken from =football365=