Man United's $120m gamble: Why they need to go all-in to win the Europa League

Manchester United face Arsenal in Europa League Round of 16 first -leg tie in Spain on Thursday .

Failure to win Europa League would mean United miss out on a place in next season's Champions League .

The club's financial problems are why it's vital they take the Europa League .

United sit in 14th position in the Premier League , 11 points behind sixth -place Newcastle .

UEFA 's total Champions League prize pot for 2024-25 is 2.04 billion ($ 2.6bn ) compared to the total 466.8 m ($ 594.52 m) on offer in the Europa League .

A winning campaign in Europa League could be worth at least 60 m ($ 76.37 ) to United .

United 's 90m-a-year ($ 114.6 m) kit deal with adidas includes 10 m ($ 12.7 m) deduction every season they don't play in the Champions League .

Winning the Europa League is the quickest way for United to get back to a sound financial footing.

The club's financial problems are deep-rooted and cannot be solved by annually walking a tightrope of attempting to qualify for the Champions League .

United need to rebuild their squad, but with money raised from moving on homegrown players enabling any fee to be classed as pure profit in the accounts.