Manchester United Football Club is to cut the funding it provides to its charitable arm as part of a purge of costs being overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, its newest billionaire shareholder.
Sky News has learnt that the Premier League club plans to inform the Manchester United Foundation that it intends to curb the benefits it provides – which totalled close to £1m last year – from 2025 onwards.
Sources close to the situation said a substantial element of the support given to the Foundation by the club would be axed, although Old Trafford insiders insisted on Sunday that it would still provide “significant” support to the charitable wing.
A decision is said to have been made by the club’s leadership to proceed with the cuts, with the Foundation expected to be informed about the scale of the reductions in the coming weeks.
In 2023, the club paid the MU Foundation nearly £175,000 for charity services, which include managing the distribution of signed merchandise to individuals raising funds for charitable causes.
Manchester United also provided gifts in kind amounting to £665,000 last year, which were understood to include use of the Old Trafford pitch and other facilities, alongside free club merchandise and the use of back-office services such as the club’s IT capabilities.
The MU Foundation works in local communities around Manchester and Salford to engage with underprivileged and marginalised people.
Its projects include Street Reds, which is targeted at 8- to 18-year-olds, and Primary Reds, which works in school classrooms with 5- to 11-year-olds.
It also organises hospital visits to support children with life-threatening illnesses.
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