ManU returned to the Champions League on Tuesday with the club "due to reveal that last season's absence from the competition" cost up to £35M ($54M) in lost revenue, according to Mark Ogden of the London TELEGRAPH. The club is set to publish its annual accounts on Thursday, when the "full cost of missing out on the Champions League" by finishing seventh in the Premier League in '13-14 will "become clear." Having announced turnover of £433.2M in last year's accounts, ManU issued an "advisory notice" when publishing its third quarter accounts in May that the final figure for the '14-15 accounts is projected to be between £385M ($590M)-£395M ($606M). With ManU not participating in the competition last season, however, "the full financial blow will be softened by the lack of bonus payments paid to players in relation to Champions League progression." Although expensive signings such as £59.7M ($91.5M) British record buy Ángel di María and Radamel Falcao, who earned £265,000-a-week during his season-long loan from Monaco, were added to the Old Trafford wage bill during the last financial year, "their salaries were mitigated by the departures of high earners" such as Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic at the end of the '13-14 campaign (TELEGRAPH, 9/15).
