ManU is poised to "play a series of lucrative friendlies abroad next season" to offset what could be a minimum £20M ($33.5M) loss for "failure to qualify for the Champions League and Europa League," according to Jamie Jackson of the London GUARDIAN. With the club "constantly offered multi-million-pound deals to play around the world in exhibition and testimonial games," the ManU hierarchy is "confident of filling the financial void left by a dismal season, and has already started planning for the potential absence from European competition next term." For "reaching the Champions League last-16 last season," United received £28.9M from UEFA, plus around £2M per home game from ticket sales. With the club "having played four matches in that campaign at Old Trafford -- three group games and the second last-16 leg -- that means United earned" nearly £35M from the competition (GUARDIAN, 2/28). In London, Marc Williams wrote ManU already has a five-game tour of the U.S. in the summer to "look forward to which stands to make" more than £12M ($20.1M) for the club, "showing that the market for these games is a highly lucrative one indeed." Serie A Inter Milan, Portuguese side Porto, La Liga Valencia and Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund are "among a string of illustrious teams performing poorly in their leagues this year and could be some possible opponents" (INDEPENDENT, 3/1).
