The club hopes to save ‘tens of millions’ of pounds
Manchester United are set to make almost a quarter of their staff redundant as they look to invest further in the first team.
According to Mail Sport, staff were given the news at a series of meetings early on Wednesday as 250 of the club’s 1100 employees could be set to lose their jobs.
After Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS purchased a quarter-stake in the Premier League club back in January, a wide-scale cost review was commissioned which recommended the cuts across all their departments.
The new investor is looking to return United to its former glories and as a result, a proposed redundancy process will take place.
Sir Jim’s priority is said to be on improving the performance of the men’s team, to return Erik ten Hag’s side to the glory days it once knew and the figure the cuts is expected to save runs into the tens of millions which the club hopes to invest back into Ten Hag’s squad.
However, it is also thought that compliance with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules has also played a part.
As of June 30th last year, Manchester United had by far the biggest staff of any club in the Premier League with 1,112 people on the payroll compared to rivals Liverpool (1005), Chelsea (788) and Manchester City (520).
The view is that the size of the workforce does not reflect where the club is on the pitch having finished last season in 8th place, 31 points behind Manchester rivals City.
The review found that staffing costs had risen to unacceptable levels and that significant transformation was needed.
It is said the move has been approved by majority owners the Glazers.
Over the coming weeks, those impacted will be notified in what will not be a voluntary process, staff were also informed. None of the redundancies will impact the charity arm, the Manchester United Foundation.
The club has been contacted for comment.
