Avram Glazer responds after calls to sell debt-laden Manchester United

The Red Devils are currently 15th in the Premier League under Ruben Amorim

(PA Archive)

Avram Glazer has said he will not sell Manchester United, after the latest financial results laid bare the clubs’ deepening debt crisis.

The co-owner was asked about the future of United on the day the club published their quarterly accounts and the £14.5m cost of getting rid of manager Erik ten Hag, sporting director Dan Ashworth and other members of football staff was revealed.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, United’s co-owner, has a 28.94 per cent stake in the club through his Ineos group and has made cuts at Old Trafford amid a substantial drop in revenues and operating profit.

The Glazer family remain majority owners of the Premier League side.

Asked by Sky Sports in Miami whether he would sell the club, Glazer gave an emphatic one-word answer: “No.”

The quarterly accounts showed that United’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) were £70.5m for the second quarter, but player trading and interest costs meant they ended up recording a £27.7m loss.

Total revenue was down 12 per cent year on year to £198.7m, with net finance costs up from £300,000 to £37.6m on the prior year quarter due to an “unfavourable swing” in foreign exchange rates on unhedged US dollars borrowings.

The 1958 fan group said the second quarter figures made for “grim reading” as they prepared to protest before the home fixture with Arsenal on March 9.

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, meanwhile, said the latest figures “lay bare the scale of the financial mismanagement” at the club.

“Fans should not pay the price for a problem that starts with our crippling debt interest payments and is exacerbated by a decade or more of mismanagement,” the supporters’ group statement read.

“It’s time to freeze ticket prices and allow everyone – players, management, owners and fans – to get behind United and restore this club to where it belongs.”

United are languishing a lowly 15th in the Premier League, with Ten Hag’s successor Ruben Amorim having failed to spark an upturn in fortunes since taking over in November.

Additional reporting by PA