Manchester United break record for most expensive squad ever as Man City transfers also hit £1bn

Manchester United's squad has set a new record for being the most expensive ever assembled, according to a UEFA report The team, which included stars like Antony, Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho and Casemiro, cost a whopping £1.21bn in transfer fees by the end of the 2023 financial year, beating the previous record held by Real Madrid in 2020.

However, the figures don't include recent signings like Mason Mount, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund. Other clubs with billion-euro squads include Manchester City, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

The report found that 105 top-division European clubs (13 per cent of the total) have a cross-investment relationship with one or more other clubs. In 2023, there were 31 purchases of majority stakes and seven purchases of minority stakes by groups holding a stake in at least one other European club. United is also set to join a multi-club investment group, with Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe close to buying a 25% stake in the club.

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However, less than one transfer per club on average is executed within the same multi-club structure. As the size of multi-club investment groups has increased, that proportion has decreased (0.6 transfers per club in 2023 compared to 0.8 in 2021), suggesting the multi-club investment trend is not entirely driven by player transfer considerations.

UEFA's director of financial sustainability and research, Andrea Traverso, said: "More than 300 clubs are part of multi-club investment groups, leading to an increased risk of seeing two clubs with the same owner or investor facing each other in the same competition,