Soccer-Man Utd's 2022-2023 squad the most expensive ever in Europe, says UEFA report

Feb 15 (Reuters) - Manchester United's squad for the 2022-23 season was the most expensive ever assembled in Europe, according to a report released by governing body UEFA.

The "European Club Finance and Investment Landscape" report said United spent just over 1.42 billion euros ($1.52 billion) on the squad which played that season, surpassing the previous mark of 1.33 billion euros spent by Real Madrid's in 2020.

Erik ten Hag's squad at the end of the 2022-23 season included big-money transfers Antony, Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Casemiro. United's rivals Manchester City were second for that season with a squad value of 1.286 billion euros.

The report, released on Wednesday, added that Real Madrid (841 million euros), Manchester City (836 million euros), Barcelona (815 million euros) and Paris St Germain (807 million euros) had the highest revenues in 2022.

The Premier League had nine teams in the top-20 earning clubs, with an average revenue of 323 million euros.

Spain's LaLiga was second with revenues of 3.3 billion euros, with Germany's Bundesliga (3.2 billion euros), Italy's Serie A (2.4 billion euros) and France's Ligue 1 (2 billion euros) rounding out the top five.

"In 2022, the revenue of England's 20 top-tier clubs was almost as high as the combined revenue of all 642 clubs in the bottom 50 countries," the report said.

English clubs also made up 764 million euros of the combined 3.2 billion euros of pre-tax losses recorded by clubs in 2022.

UEFA said the figures for pre-tax losses were positive "amid slowing wage inflation and renewed buoyancy in the transfer market".

($1 = 0.9321 euros) (Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford )