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The image rights company of Manchester United loanee Mason Greenwood has reportedly gone into voluntary liquidation even as uncertainty grows over where he’ll be playing his football after this season.
Greenwood was controversially suspended in January 2022 after he was arrested on suspicion of raping and assaulting a woman.
He was then charged with the offences but the case against him was eventually dropped, with the Crown Prosecution Service citing the withdrawal of key witnesses.
United subsequently launched an internal investigation into the matter and had provisionally planned to bring him back until their plans got leaked.
Following backlash and public outrage, club bosses led by former CEO Richard Arnold reversed their decision and decided to send the Englishman to Getafe on loan for the 2023/24 campaign.
He has been impressive in Spain and seems to be enjoying his football once more. Greenwood scored his eighth goal of the campaign on Saturday as Getafe played out a 3-3 draw against Las Palmas.
The Englishman cleverly rounded the rival goalkeeper before guiding the ball into the back of an empty net.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently opened the door to the possibility of Greenwood making a return to United in the summer, although it’s understood the forward would be reluctant to go back to Old Trafford even if he were offered the opportunity.
Greenwood feels that United should have backed him harder rather than fold to public pressure and send him out on loan.
Getafe unsurprisingly want to extend his stay at the club. Another report covered by The Peoples Person relayed that United are keen to sell Greenwood in the summer as they stand to make a pure profit from his departure.
At this moment, his immediate future is up in the air. According to The Times, it seems that Greenwood’s off-the-pitch ventures have also not been doing too well.
The newspaper reveals, “Mason Greenwood’s image rights company has gone into voluntary liquidation just over two years since the striker was suspended by Manchester United after accusations against him surfaced on social media.”
“A filing at Companies House shows that TSM Sports Ltd, of which Greenwood is the only director, has filed for voluntary liquidation less than a year after accounts showed the company’s cash in the bank had risen to £1.03 million.”
“The company is now being wound up voluntarily and a liquidator has been appointed. The most recent accounts, filed in December, showed that as recently as September 30 cash in the bank had dropped to £401,000 and total assets were £530,000.”
United removed all merchandise that had Greenwood’s name or image from their shop and online store, shortly after his arrest.
Nike also ended their sponsorship deal with the Carrington academy graduate.
The Times points out that legal experts insist that for a player to have an image rights company, they must have an image that has value to sponsors.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said about Greenwood’s company, “The company either lost a lot of money in 2023 or a lot was taken out in wages for its one employee and/or dividends, as the cash balance fell by £600,000. A similar decrease since the company’s year end in September would have left little and may explain why it has gone into voluntary liquidation.”
“Players will often set up an image rights company in order to be tax efficient. A Premier League player is likely to be earning £3-5 million a year and paying tax at the higher rate. You can normally get up to 20 per cent of your salary paid into your image rights company, so if they are able to do so the player would take the money out when they retire from playing [when they] do not have money coming in from other sources and so would then pay tax at a lower rate.”
Some footballers register their image rights companies in the UK but others prefer to have them based offshore.
Greenwood’s contract with United is set to expire in 2025.