Investors headed for the turnstiles at Sheffield United after the Yorkshire football club missed out on the holy grail of Premiership status following a 3-0 trouncing by Wolves in a promotion decider. City analysts believe that missing out on Premiership status will cost the club about £15m-£20m in vital TV rights revenues next season. Worryingly, Sheffield United recently flagged up a £4.96m fundraising through a one-for-one open offer (due to close on 30 May), and will move its shares down to Aim on 3 June. The cash will repay debts run-up funding the development of its youth academy and will boost the working capital position. Now that the club has fallen at the final promotion hurdle, shareholders should expect player sales to follow. Back in March, 'The Blades' interim numbers to December showed pre-tax losses widening slightly to £1.3m (losses of £1.2m) on flat turnover of £4.7m (£4.7m). At the time, chairman Kevin McCabe argued that with football financially in the mire and in the wake of the collapse of ITV Digital, 'my colleagues deserve due credit for restricting losses to a similar level to those for the comparable period last year'. Football teams are a perilous investment. Only for the committed. Avoid.

Sheffield United	AIM	£27.85m	10.00p	0.00p
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