Manchester United have secured Champions League football for 2026/27 which will also provide a salary increase for the first-team squad.
The 3-2 win over Liverpool secured a top-five finish and therefore Champions League football returning to Old Trafford.
While the Champions League provides a £100m boost to United’s finances, it also triggers a pay rise for first-team players.
According to The Guardian, most United players are set for a 25% pay rise as a result of their Champions League qualification.
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Finance expert predicts Man Utd 2026/27 wage bill
As per the latest club accounts released in 2024/25, United’s wage bill was £313m, but that will rise significantly as a result of Champions League bonuses.
United in Focus have spoken exclusively with football finance expert Adam Williams about the impact that the bonuses will have on the club’s wage bill.
“I’m going to make a couple of points which might seem pedantic, but I hope that they also illustrate the complexities of United’s wage structure, what Ineos are trying to do by indexing pay to performance, and what Champions League football means to United financially – because it isn’t a miracle cure,” Williams said.
“In 2023-24, the last season United were in the Champions League, the wage bill for the season was £365m. In 2024-25, when they were in the Europa League, they were at £313m.
“That gives you an idea of the kind of performance-related bonuses that United’s players are on. That said, that wage bill is for the entire business, which employs hundreds of people, meaning the drop-off between 2023-24 and 2024-25 also encompasses Ratcliffe getting rid of nearly 20 per cent of staff.
“The accounts for 2025-26, when United had no European football whatsoever, will be the most telling because you’ll get an idea of what the basic wage bill is before bonuses, plus the true impact of the mass redundancies.
“Personally, however, I think The Guardian’s piece probably misunderstands a few things. For example, it cites Fernandes as being United’s highest-paid player on £250,000 per week after the 25 per cent increase, which implies he was on £200,000 per week this season or £10.4m per year.
“If you assume, as is the usual starting point in the industry, that 75 per cent of United’s wage bill last season was first-team players, that’s an average salary of almost £8m-ish split over 30 players. Clearly, however, that’s not how a wage structure works – in reality, senior players – like Fernandes – earn much, much more than a young player on his first pro deal, so that £10.4m per year doesn’t stack up whichever way you cut it.
“Maybe £200,000 is his basic wage, before appearance fees, other performance-related bonuses and the Champions League uplift. There’s also image rights, which can be worth 25 per cent of a player’s total remuneration. The reality is that Fernandes is probably on closer to £300,000 per week before the Champions League bonus.
“On top of that, United also have to pay National Insurance, which is nearly 15 per cent. So there are a lot of factors that go into a player’s ‘weekly’ wage, it is rarely as similar as a linear uplift from X to Y after qualifying for the Champions League, and player wages are almost always understated when the club’s representatives brief the media.
“All that said, United have made a concerted effort to tie wages to performance since the Ineos investment in 2024. The idea is that you protect yourself in a fallow year because you aren’t paying top, top wages when you aren’t getting Champions League income. The flip side is that, while you might be getting £100m-plus in extra revenue next season, that’s not the actual profit that United are making from the competition. Once you factor in wage hikes, increased matchday costs and so on, the benefit is much more marginal because those expenses eat into your prize money and additional matchday income.
“That’s why Champions League football, while no doubt phenomenally helpful, is not a silver bullet for United financially. Their whole operation still needs to be a lot leaner, in terms of paying the right players the right wages and consistently qualifying for the Champions League. That’s the only way that they’ll be able to continue spending big in the transfer and wage markets without external funding from the Glazers or Ratcliffe. Either way, I’d predict a £350m wage bill next season, regardless of what they do in the summer.”
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Man Utd’s wage bill set to rise to £350m
Williams predicts United’s wage bill to rise to £350 million once player bonuses come into effect, but that is still lower than the £365 million figure when the Red Devils were last in the Champions League.
That is a credit to Ineos regaining control of the wage bill at Old Trafford.
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Casemiro leaving this summer will also help United balance their wages as he is the club’s highest earner on a wage of £350,000 per week.
Exits for high earners such as Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Andre Onana will also save United millions off their wage bill.
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