Manchester United Scores Sponsors Despite Moyes Sacking and Dismal Season

Manchester United has raked in and retained sponsors despite a dismal season which led to the sacking of its manager David Moyes.

Moyes's reign as Manchester United manager was finally brought to an inevitable end yesterday after 10 shaky months in charge.

Despite missing out on next season's Champions League and a guarantee that they will finish the season with their lowest points total in the Premier League, the Manchester United business is otherwise is still winning in many fields – just not the one at Old Trafford.

On the subject of poor seasons, failure to win trophies and putative sponsorship deals, Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish once said: "There are many ways you can judge a season and the best way is progress at the football club as a whole. I don't think it necessarily relates to trophies or points."

With that in mind, United have every reason to be ecstatic... Right?

Commercial revenues are soaring for the club. They were up by £42.3m (€51.4m, $71m) – a decent 18.8% for the quarter ending 31 December and 30% for the year to date.

Broadcasting revenues increased by 18.7% to £46.9m, mainly due to the new television deals in place with broadcasters such as BskyB and the BBC.

Executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, said in a statement: "We once again achieved a record revenue quarter with strong contributions from our commercial and broadcasting businesses despite the current league position, which everyone from the Team Manager [who has since been sacked since the release of the statement] down has acknowledged is disappointing."

In the second quarter, United also secured six new sponsorships with Fuji TV, Banif Bank, Unilever, Hong Kong Jockey Club, STC and SPOTV Korea all agreeing deals with the club. Sponsorship revenue in total was £29m in the same period of time, up 39.4%.

Following the confirmation that Moyes had departed from Old Trafford, the club's shares jumped in value by over 6% yesterday, reaching the highest they've been since May 2013 when Sir Alex Ferguson was still in control of the club.

Just two hours after Moyes' sacking, the club's price on the New York Stock Exchange had increased by $100m to over $3bn.

The club is also slowly chipping away at its huge debt. United had a gross debt of £356m when 2013 came to a close, which was down 2.7% on the previous year.

United are expected to invest heavily in the squad in the coming summer transfer market as they look to overhaul an ageing squad and resurrect the team for the 2014/15 season.