Angel Di Maria exit cost Man United up to £22.5m

Di Maria, 27, signed for United from Real Madrid in a British-record £59.7m deal last summer, but was sold to French champions PSG for £44m in August following a disappointing season at Old Trafford.


A statement from corporate FX broker Foenix Partners read: "Since mid-September 2014, GBP/EUR has steadily risen from below 1.2400, reaching a high of 1.4415 in July 2015 and gaining more than 20 cents (17 percent) in 10 months. As a result, UK clubs buying players in Europe have enjoyed a sharp fall in the sterling costs of their European transactions.
"However, when selling players to European clubs the situation has reversed. When Manchester United bought Argentine winger Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid on Aug. 26 2014 the cost was £59.7m at a rate of 1.2558.
"When the club sold the same player to Paris Saint-Germain for just £44.3m on Aug. 6 not only did they lose £15m on the player, but they are also likely to have lost a further £7.5m (exact figure is £7,575,300) due to the exchange at the time."

The statement read: "Although payments to the top UK clubs playing in the UEFA Champions League have risen dramatically for the 2015-2016 season, increasing from €37.4m to a maximum of €54.5 (a hike of 46 percent), the exchange rate from the date of first round matches in 2014 (16-17 Sept. 2014) to today has dropped 11 percent.
"As a result English clubs will lose 11 percent on the currency exchange as a result of the weaker Euro."
Richard de Meo, managing director of Foenix Partners, said: "The ongoing uptrend has punished anyone who was tempted into booking forwards as they would have subsequently missed out on favourable moves thanks to further Euro weakness."