Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Manchester United Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. To queue for questions, please press star one. If anyone has difficulty hearing the call, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. We would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Corinna Freedman, Head of Investor Relations for Manchester United.
Thank you, Roger. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Manchester United's fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call. A press release containing our financial results was issued earlier today and can be accessed on our investor relations website. This call is being recorded and webcast, and a replay of this call will be available on our website for 30 days. Before we begin, and as a matter of formality, we would like to remind everyone that this conference call will include estimates and forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Any such estimates or forward-looking statements should be considered along with the disclosures included with our earnings release, as well as additional risk factor discussions contained in our filings with the SEC.
Members of our executive leadership team participating on the call today include Richard Arnold, our Chief Executive Officer, Football Director John Murtough, Collette Roche, COO, Phil Lynch, CEO of Digital Products and Experiences, Victoria Timpson, CEO of Alliances and Partnerships, and Cliff Baty, our CFO. We will begin with prepared remarks. We will then open up the call to your questions. Investors are also invited to email any questions to our general IR inbox at ir@manutd.co.uk. I will now turn the conference call over to Richard Arnold, our CEO, for his opening remarks. Richard.
Thank you. Good morning and welcome to everyone joining. Clearly, our on-pitch performance in finishing sixth in the Premier League last season fell short of our aims and expectations. In response, we've made important and necessary changes, including new leadership for the men's first team under Erik ten Hag and the strengthening of the playing squad during the summer transfer window. We also continue to develop our women's squad, which now contains four of the England Lionesses who were victorious in this year's UEFA European Championships. Our youth pipeline also remains strong with major trophy wins for both our men's under-18 and women's under-21 academy teams last season. Our football director, John Murtough, will walk you through these developments in more detail shortly, but I want to stress that we're working tirelessly behind the scenes to create the conditions for renewed football success.
That includes ongoing investment in the training facilities at Carrington. When we last spoke, we set out our mission to support our football teams in delivering the titles and trophies that we know Manchester United should be competing for. This encompasses football, fans, facilities, and financials. This process is ongoing. However, we have already put in place many of the foundations of new structures and talent to drive long-term success. We'll hear more color from the rest of the executive leadership team shortly on the progress we've made thus far. Ultimately, we know that the strength of Manchester United rests on the passion and loyalty of our fans. That's why we've made improving fan engagement one of our strategic priorities. In January, we launched our Fans' Advisory Board as a new channel for board-level dialogue between fan representatives and the club, its management and owners.
This model has since been embraced by the Premier League as a mandatory model for other clubs to follow. We also have a number of other fan initiatives in process. We will continue to strengthen our engagement with our fans around the world, both through physical and digital activity. This summer, we completed our first full pre-season tour in three years following COVID, playing in front of over 350,000 fans in five cities. Collette Roche, our Chief Operating Officer, will share more highlights of the tour later in the call. For fans at Old Trafford, we believe they deserve excellent facilities and experiences when attending matches. Earlier this year, we appointed master planners to explore options for potential redevelopment of our stadium and the club-owned land which surrounds it.
We're at an early stage of a multi-year project, and we will continue to gather input and feedback from our fans and other stakeholders on these options before making any firm decisions, and we will update the market in due course. Whilst remaining committed to long-term investment in the stadium, we will be disciplined in our capital plans, which must be sustainable and mindful of the macroeconomic pressures and inflationary environment currently impacting the U.K. and wider global economies. The club has shown strong momentum in our commercial operations, reflecting both the welcome return of match-going fans to the stadium after the pandemic and the strength of our venue, merchandising, and partnership operations.
Despite global economic headwinds, we see strong tailwinds for the value of global TV rights for Premier League and UEFA competitions. A competitive sponsorship market with many new market entrants looking to build and strengthen their brand through association with leading global sports brands such as ours. While the FIFA World Cup in Qatar this winter will cause some disruption to our usual cadence of games, we expect it to further fuel the profile and popularity of football around the world, with many of our first team players expected to take part for their respective nations. In terms of digital activity, the volume and global reach of our club media content continues to grow across both owned and operated channels and all the major social media platforms.
Phil Lynch, our CEO of Digital Products and Experiences, will speak further to the opportunities ahead as we explore new forms of digital engagement with fans. Victoria Timpson, our CEO of Alliances and Partnerships, will provide update on recent highlights from our sponsorship operations, while Cliff Baty, our CFO, will review our financial results and provide our outlook for fiscal 2023. In summary, everyone at the club is aligned on a clear strategy to deliver success, sustained success on the pitch and a sustainable economic model off it. The mutual benefit of fans, shareholders, and other stakeholders. We believe the building blocks for future success are being put in place, but we acknowledge there is still much more for us to do this season and beyond, and that success will not happen overnight. As a club, we're moving forward, united and committed to achieving our goals.
I'll now hand the call over first to John Murtough, our Football Director, who will provide an update on our football activities.
Thank you, Richard. I'd like to start with a quick recap of key achievements and strategic developments across our football operation during the fiscal year. Starting with the men's first team, most important development during the 2021-2022 season was the appointment of Erik ten Hag as manager. After a thorough search and due diligence process, it was clear to us that Erik was the strongest candidate based on his outstanding coaching record, his commitment to the proactive attacking football we want to play, and the vision and ambition he showed for the role. There is still a long way to go, but we've already seen during his first four months in charge an increased unity, focus, and drive that bodes well for the future.
During the summer, we made significant investment in the first team squad with the permanent addition of five regular starters, including a balance of experienced international players and younger emerging talents. We also saw a higher than usual number of departures, and this was an equally important part of refreshing the squad after the disappointing 2021-2022 season. We will continue to support Erik, ensuring he has the players with the right quality and character to achieve success, while ensuring that investment remains consistent with our commitment to financial sustainability. Overall, we are ahead of schedule in our recruitment plans as envisaged at the start of the summer, and we do not anticipate the same level of activity in future windows. As always, our planning focus is on the summer window.
We are also pleased with the seven additions made to our women's squad and look forward to seeing the team continue to develop under Marc Skinner after last year's solid fourth-place finish in the Women's Super League. Another high point this year was our under-18 men's academy team winning the FA Youth Cup for a record 11th time in May in front of over 67,000 fans at Old Trafford. By far the highest attendance ever achieved in the competition. There was also success for our women's under-21s, who achieved a fantastic double win of both the WSL Academy League and the WSL Academy Cup. Nurturing of youth will always remain a cornerstone of this club, and we are excited as ever about the talent we have coming through in both our men's and our women's academies.
Overall, while there is still a great deal of work ahead, we are confident that the right people and processes have been put in place to support our teams in their pursuit of success. I'll now hand over to Collette Roche, our Chief Operating Officer, who will provide a brief update on club operations. Collette.
Thank you, John. I'd now like to set out a few highlights from club operations during the last quarter and full fiscal year, as well as some more recent key developments, including our summer tour. It was another strong year for ticket demand. With over 135,000 people on our waiting list for season tickets, supporter loyalty is something that we never take for granted. This year, we were able to once again keep general admission prices frozen for the 11th straight year. We experienced a record sellout of our 2022/2023 season tickets this year, with the lowest churn ever as we offered our supporters even more flexibility, including the ability to opt out of cup matches. This allowed us to introduce a new cup season ticket package, providing more fans with the opportunity to experience Old Trafford.
We have also introduced various ways in which fans can pass on their tickets if they cannot attend matches, including the ability to donate tickets to our foundation. We are pleased to announce that our executive club suites and boxes also sold out in record time and at record revenue levels. Our paid membership program is once again experiencing another record year with our highest ever signups recorded, exceeding 275,000 global members at the end of this fiscal year. This momentum has continued into the current fiscal year as we have already surpassed this level in the current season. We are also delighted to see stronger ticket demand for our women's matches as the thrilling win by England's national team in the European Championships this year featured four current Manchester United players and has boosted interest at club level across the WSL.
This year, season ticket demand for our women's matches has increased 55% versus the previous year. Before a ball had been kicked, we'd sold more tickets than we did across the entire season last year. Old Trafford was fortunate to host the opening game of the Euros in July with nearly 69,000 fans in attendance, a record for a women's match in the U.K. prior to the final, held just a few weeks later at Wembley. We'll welcome back even more women's fans to Old Trafford for a third WSL match in December against Aston Villa. We are very optimistic for continued momentum of the women's game. As Richard highlighted in his opening remarks, this past July, we returned to our normal summer tour operations with six matches across three continents, four countries, and five cities in three weeks.
Over 350,000 fans were in attendance, generating record tour revenues at a rate significantly higher than our last tour in 2019, which also comprised the same number of matches in similar territories. Pre-season summer tours are critical in preparing the team for the start of the season, while at the same time bringing our global fans closer to the club they love. Tours also support our partners and media teams in achieving their commercial objectives, and Phil and Victoria will both speak to other highlights in that regard. Over the summer, we completed several infrastructure upgrades and other maintenance projects, both at Old Trafford and at Carrington Training Center, as we remain committed to offering our fans a positive experience, enhanced safety, and an unrivaled atmosphere. I'll now hand the call over to Phil Lynch for an overview of digital products and experiences.
Thanks, Collette. Excuse me. Since our last earnings call, our digital products and experiences team continued to build upon the strong performance we achieved in the first half of the year, and this momentum continues into fiscal 2023. We achieved record results in multiple club KPIs, including engagement, total video views, daily average users, new digital subscribers, new app registrations, and importantly, e-commerce revenues. Strong e-commerce sales were driven by record sales of new kits supported by compelling digital content. United Direct, our online store, had its biggest ever year with website traffic up 73%. E-commerce sales for the full fiscal year were nearly double the revenue generated in prior year due to the strong collaboration of our retail, digital marketing, CRM, and content teams, and due to investment in technologies which will continue to enhance our e-commerce operations in the future.
We also achieved record first-week sales for our 2022-2023 home and away kits, which launched in July. Through social media, we continued to directly engage with our fans around the world, and we achieved 2.8 billion digital interactions, a 72% increase relative to the prior fiscal year, designating Manchester United as the number one most engaged club or sports team on social media worldwide. To put this into context, this is more social interactions than every team combined in any of the four major US sports leagues, and more interactions than any other major sports properties, including the Indian Premier League, Formula One, and the UFC. We also broke a club record this year in video with over 8.5 billion video views, the most for any sports team globally.
We will continue to expand to new formats and platforms to directly connect with our fans around the world. On our owned and operated platforms, the evolution of our industry-leading mobile app continued with the full rollout of our enhanced club app this past quarter, which allows us to deliver more world-class seamless MU content with increased fan interactivity. Integration of MUTV within the core club app has been a success, contributing to record video views on our platforms. Fans around the world from the Stretford End at Old Trafford to Indonesia can now experience the very best of our club's video content, including every single United match since 1992. We are proud to highlight that fan downloads have pushed our app to the number one most downloaded in the sports category in over 100 markets globally.
In addition, our app was the most used sports club app for the 2021-2022 season, with more average monthly active users than the next two biggest Premier League clubs combined. For the fourth quarter, our app experienced a 31% increase in average daily active users versus the prior fiscal year. Again, another club record. This was in part driven by our summer tour. My colleagues earlier positively highlighted, and I'll echo those sentiments as our summer tour contributed to a record number of registrations for our app, as it was the only place to view our tour matches live. We will also be focused on rolling out more new and exciting content via our app, and we have an array of exciting projects in the works, including the launch of two additional podcast brands, which fans can now access directly via our app.
Fans are now also able to access MUTV via their Samsung and Sony smart TVs, in addition to Apple TV, Xbox, Amazon Fire, and Roku as part of the club's efforts to increase accessibility of Manchester United content. In the upcoming months, we plan to further expand our connected TV rollout to extend to other smart TV models as well. We currently renewed our agreement with Sky for the distribution of the linear MUTV channel in the UK and Ireland, and this partnership makes MUTV available to Sky's 12 million paid TV subscribers. Our linear television network continues to be the most subscribed football channel in the United Kingdom, and through our linear partners, we now have access to over 71 territories and continue to pursue prospects to expand MUTV's footprint.
From our 220 million-plus social media followers to our owned and operated media and content platforms, including our industry-leading club app, our fans enjoy a 360-degree digital experience fueled by constant content creation. Enhancing and evolving our digital capabilities and engagement continues to represent a massive opportunity for us and for our fans. It also enables us to better provide fans with features, experiences, and products that express our fans' enduring passion for this club. To give you just a brief update on our longer-term digital strategy, Manchester United will continue to explore more innovative opportunities to strategically leverage our IP. Opportunities that are always guided by a fan-centric point of view.
In collaboration with our partnership with Tezos, we are exploring a range of blockchain-enabled fan offerings, including digital collectibles, among other digital products, with a primary focus on fan utility, and we will have more info to share on that front in the coming months. I'll now hand the call over to Victoria Timpson for an overview of alliances and partnerships. Thank you.
Thank you, Phil. Partnerships have always been a key driver of the revenue that supports our overall objective of football success. In turn, our partners benefit from Manchester United's strong affinity and best-in-sport global awareness. This year, we launched a record number of principal partnerships and welcomed TeamViewer, DXC, and Tezos as global principal partners. We also signed new and recent notable deals with Qualcomm, Extreme Networks, Ecolab, Therabody, and Betfred. Turning to renewals, we have renewed eight global partnerships in fiscal 2022, including DHL, Marriott, and Remington, among others. We also renewed our licensing agreement with New Era. We returned to more normalized partner activations this quarter in April, as the club held its first in-person I Love United event in Miami since the onset of the pandemic.
We hosted 22 global partners with more than 2,000 US fans, and we are looking forward to hosting more events in our key growth markets. We also returned to normal summer tour activities with 22 global commercial partners, and our tour activations generated nearly 125 million global digital impressions. These results demonstrate continued robust sponsorship interest against a difficult global macro backdrop, demonstrating the enduring appeal of live sports and the global passion for Manchester United. I'll now hand the call over to Cliff Baty who will review our financial results.
Thank you, Victoria. I'll now talk you through our results for the full year, and then I'll speak to our current expectations for the upcoming fiscal year. Turning first to the full year fiscal 2022 results, we'd like to remind you that year-on-year comparisons of the prior year are impacted by COVID pandemic effects and the changes to fixture schedules and operations that occurred in fiscal 2021. Total revenues for the period were GBP 583.2 million. This was GBP 89.1 million higher than the prior year, owing to the return of fans this season, offset by a reduction in broadcasting revenues due to the lower number of games played. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP 81.1 million, down GBP 14 million from the prior year due to increased player wages and a return to more normalized operational cost base. Turning to the key items in the results.
Total commercial revenues of GBP 257.8 million, with sponsorship revenues of GBP 147.9 million, GBP 7.7 million higher due to new partnerships and a reduction in COVID-19 related contract variations. Merchandising and licensing revenues were GBP 109.9 million, up GBP 17.9 million, reflecting the reopening of the mega store at Old Trafford, as well as the continued strong growth in the e-commerce royalties. Broadcasting revenues for the year were GBP 214.9 million, a decrease of GBP 39.9 million, due to the impact of COVID on the prior year's fixture schedule. Fiscal 2022, the club played 38 Premier League games as normal, while in Fiscal 2021, we played 44 Premier League matches due to the carryover from the previous season.
Match day revenues were GBP 110.5 million, an increase of GBP 103.4 million due to the return of fans for the whole season. Moving down the income statement. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization, and exceptional items increased by GBP 103.1 million. This includes wages, which were up 19.1% in line with expectations following significant player investments made last summer. Other operating expenses increased by GBP 41.5 million due to the return of fans to Old Trafford, as well as the reopening of the Megastore and inflationary pressure on certain costs. Depreciation and amortization costs were GBP 165.8 million for fiscal 2022, an increase of GBP 26.4 million due to the level of investment in the playing squad.
Exceptional items for the year were GBP 24.7 million, primarily in relation to the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick and related coaching and scouting staff. Net finance costs for the year were GBP 62.2 million, a significant increase from the prior year due to the foreign exchange impact on the unhedged portion of our US debt. This non-cash charge was caused by significant weakening of sterling versus the US dollar, as the bulk of our debt is denominated in US dollars. It's important to reiterate that cash interest costs were unaffected by foreign exchange and were in line with prior years at around GBP 21 million. Turning now to our balance sheet. At the end of June, cash balances were GBP 121.2 million, up GBP 10.5 million compared to the prior year.
This increase in cash includes the drawdown of additional GBP 40 million from our revolving credit facilities during the year. Player CapEx expenditure was GBP 85.1 million for the period. Net debt was GBP 514.9 million, an increase of GBP 95.4 million compared to the prior year. GBP 64.6 million of this increase was solely due to foreign exchange impacts on the US dollar debt. In real terms, our debt increased by the additional GBP 40 million drawdown of the revolving credit facility previously mentioned. It is worth noting that the club lost over GBP 200 million of cash due to the COVID pandemic that has required use of our RCF facility. Now turning to our guidance. We expect full-year fiscal 2022 revenues of GBP 580 million-GBP 600 million, which will be impacted by three primary drivers.
First, the start of the new Premier League rights cycle. Second, participation in the Europa League versus the Champions League relative to fiscal 2022. Finally, normalized summer tour revenue. We expect fiscal 2023 adjusted EBITDA to be between GBP 100 million-GBP 110 million. This reflects savings on player wages as a result of UCL remuneration clauses and results in an overall wage reduction versus fiscal 2022 of high single digits%. Adjusted EBITDA guidance also reflects the continued investment in the playing squad, as well as elevated utility costs, which are forecast to be several million GBP above prior year. In addition, further continued movement of sterling to US dollar exchange rate will impact our net finance costs and net debt calculation. However, these are non-cash impacts.
Finally, I'd also like to provide some color on a few other key items you may find instructive when modeling our fiscal 2023 results. We expect amortization to be GBP 180 million. This can change if we buy or sell players or extend a player's contract. Lastly, our committed net player CapEx for fiscal 2023 currently stands at approximately GBP 120 million. As always, we thank you for your continued interest in Manchester United. With that, we are now ready for your questions. Operator?
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Today's first question comes from Randy Konik with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Great. Maybe I could start with Phil. You gave some great specifics on just the amount of impressions or engagement that's done on the Man U app, and viewership versus other sports teams, sports leagues, et cetera. You know, can you elaborate a little bit more on some of the things you're working on to kind of continue to monetize the great library of content you have, maybe other extraordinary things, I don't know, about Netflix or Amazon, stuff like that? Anything in that direction you're thinking of to continue to kind of widen the viewership potential and monetization potential for all the great content you guys have?
Yeah, no, it's a great question, and thanks for asking. I think ultimately, obviously there's a lot of demand from the market to engage with our products. I think, you know, if you look back on the last year, a lot of it was to continue to build, and we talked about that by migrating MUTV and the One app together. I think now that we have a more simplified user experience, I think of some of these monetization opportunities that you're talking about outside of the content discussion now become a lot more, I guess, streamlinable, if that makes sense, because we're now starting to have a singular view of our customer, and a way to kind of personalize and target.
I think you'll continue to see a lot more work in terms of personalization, marrying user content preferences with actual content they'll consume. As well, as I referenced earlier, some of the stuff we're doing in the blockchain space. Obviously we continue to talk to folks, everybody in the market around various original productions, but nothing's slated right now.
Got it. Thanks. I think maybe this one's for Richard. You know, Old Trafford, you gave a really good statement or, I think Collette about holding the ticket prices flat for I think over 10 years now. Yet revenues continue to grow from the stadium because of, I'm assuming, more utilization or higher prices in the executive boxes, and other areas. Can you elaborate a little bit more on how you're thinking about kind of continuing to drive increased utilization and, you know, revenue opportunity from Old Trafford while continuing to kind of really work well with the fans to, kind of keep those ticket prices flat, at least on the core side of the, on the seats.
Just give us some flavor on what you're thinking there as you know, think about redevelopment or other enhancement opportunities for the stadium going forward. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Randy. I mean, you know, I think you alluded to the importance the club places on a full and vibrant Old Trafford supporting the team. In terms of the affordability for the general fan, we work very hard, not just on ticket prices, but also beer and other commonly purchased items to make sure that those costs have been kept at an affordable level against the backdrop of sort of fairly significant inflation elsewhere. That's about, you know, rewarding that loyalty and that passionate fan base.
You know, we saw strong demand through COVID, and I know that, our fans were very appreciative of the flexibility that we've shown in terms of the ticketing policies, both the people who continued to need to shield from COVID, as well as those affected economically, who needed time to get back on their feet. As you alluded, there's been sort of two drivers of increased revenues in the stadium. What you'll see as we go into this current year is, you know, that trend being borne out, and that twofold. One is, increased innovation in ensuring that every seat has someone sat in it.
Again, you know, every stadium in the world will know that, you know, for one reason or another, there are people who buy tickets and end up being not able to make it. You know, the percentages we're seeing are now incredibly low by virtue of some innovations we put in. The ability to donate the ticket to our foundation, which means that, people in the local area that may not be able to afford to go, can go to the game. The ability for tickets to be bought back by the club, particularly for those traveling, from a long distance, you know, if they're traveling from Scandinavia or Ireland, we know in advance that if a game is rescheduled or, is a midweek evening game, it could be more difficult to attend.
The club have been proactively contacting those fans with a view to buying their ticket back and making it available. The third aspect relates to the membership and ensuring that as many tickets as possible, whether that, you know, whether returned or made available for sale, for people not using them, are filled with members, and that's a rapidly growing, you know, we believe we will be headed towards having the largest membership base of any club in any sport in the world. You know, that is reflective of the demand for those tickets. We're achieving success in ensuring that every seat is filled for every game. At the other end of the spectrum, you know, what you're seeing is that, the stadium continues to see very high demand for high-end experiences.
You know, just as we've worked hard to make sure that, you know, the entry level and the average price for the average fan remains affordable, for the most expensive experiences we've been seeking by way of the facilities, but also the pricing to ensure that that helps the overall mix and the overall revenue generated from the stadium to support not just its maintenance, but also, you know, future developments and ongoing developments. You know, I think that that balance has been important in continuing to grow revenues without putting through prices that make it unaffordable for the average match-going fan. That's been a tenet throughout, and one that we, you know, continue to believe.
Thanks a lot. Very helpful.
One final piece on that, Randy.
Okay.
Again, this relates to our Fans' Advisory Board. One of the areas they asked us to address was how cup tickets are sold. Historically, those were bundled with season tickets with an obligation to purchase. The feedback from our Fans' Advisory Board was they would like to look at that again from a strategic point of view, that was done and we split the cup tickets from the general season ticket so that fans have a choice. Again, that's particularly important. Many cup games are midweek, and that is more difficult, particularly for those traveling internationally from, as I said previously, Ireland and Scandinavia, but there are season ticket holders around the world as well as those you know that are in work that struggle to get straight to a game afterwards.
We split that product and we found there's been incredible demand for people who are unable to get a season ticket, who now can get a season ticket to cup games. Correspondingly, it's made life a lot simpler for those who are unable or found it difficult to attend midweek games. That's been an example of the benefit of the enhanced engagement and communication we've had through the Fans' Advisory Board, where we've been able to tackle some of these issues and improve things for the fan, but also for the club.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Xian Siew with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the question. Maybe on the EBITDA guidance, just wondering, you know, you did GBP 185 million in EBITDA in fiscal 2019. Obviously, 2023 guidance below that. Maybe can you just help us think about the path back to that level, the pre-COVID level? How do we kinda get back there over time would be helpful.
Yeah, sure, Xian. I mean, I think the first thing to think about, you're looking at EBITDA, but one thing that we wanna take away is the strength of the business' revenues and the confidence we have in that. Because to a degree, EBITDA then is a function of a couple of things. Clearly, the number you're talking there is Champions League. Yes, this club needs to be in the Champions League. Getting back into the Champions League and success on the football side will improve that level of EBITDA.
Now, obviously, we do have a mitigation about that with the way our contracts are structured, but it's still a sort of, you know, GBP 20-25 million plus, and probably will be more lucrative in the next season, the next cycle of the Champions League with the new format. That's one thing. I think if you look at the level of player investments, we have had a high level of player investments, probably coming out the back of COVID these last couple of years. I think we weren't shy in guiding to the 20% increase in wages that we've seen this year, this time last year. That obviously, slightly elevated level is still ongoing this year.
I'd expect a return to normalized levels of wages now that we operate in a market. We obviously, you know, it's a competitive market, and we wanna make sure we have the right players and the right team out there. Certainly there has been a level of elevated investment these last couple of years. Then also we are suffering as every club and every business is from the sort of inflationary shocks that we're seeing at the moment. Reference that in terms of utilities, but that's also affecting us and other football clubs in many areas in terms of, you know, travel and flights, et cetera, as well as basic wages.
I think assuming that comes back under control, the key things are basically getting back into the Champions League, potential return to normalization of wages. Most importantly, it's the strong growth in revenues will take us back up to those levels, and we're very comfortable with that.
Okay. Makes a lot of sense. You highlighted some of the industry developments, for example, the UEFA financial sustainability with capping revenues at 70% or, you know, capping, I guess, spend at 70% of revenues. Maybe can you help us think about how that will shape, I guess, your decisions going forward and maybe how that help or, you know, positions you versus the competition as you think about kind of those industry changes?
Yes. I think there's sort of two factors in that. Again, you alluded to that in the question. The first is the impact on the market, and the second is how we're looking at this from our own performance going forward, and historically. I think in respect to the market, of course, we've seen from historic trends that whenever regulations have been implemented that seek to manage costs and improve profitability, those have had an effect. We saw that with the cost measures that were implemented in the Premier League and indeed in the European competitions previously. That is something as a club we believe in terms of making the whole football pyramid sustainable.
You've alluded to the work that's going on through UEFA, but there is also work going on in English football in terms of making sure that every club up and down the pyramid can continue to have a, you know, a long future that matches the long history that many of these clubs have. Our expectation is that this regulation will bring costs and revenues into a healthier balance and provide for a sustainable future for football. In respect of our own activities, I think, you know, there are two aspects to this.
The first is the change that we've seen in the current season, and as John alluded to in his remarks, you know, there were a high number of players leaving and an outcome at the end of last season that demonstrated a need for us to strengthen. I think as you look at our activity in this space, historically, we've had to strike a balance between investing in the talent needed to perform at the levels expected of Manchester United. That, you know, that heightened expectation is good for our fans, but it's also good for our shareholders.
We have to balance that with the sustainability in the near term and the long term, and we believe that both of those aims are helped by FFP and are consistent with our own aims of, you know, making sure that the investments that we make are effective in driving the sporting performance that's good for fans, it's good for the club, and it's good for the club's investors.
Yeah. Very helpful. Thank you, guys.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question- and- answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to the management team for any final remarks.
Thank you everyone for joining, and we look forward to speaking with you again.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.