Sir Jim Ratcliffe has provoked controversy after he pulled funding for a charity associated with Manchester United Football Club without telling them.
The prominent Brexiteer, who has seen the Red Devils slip towards the relegation zone after he acquired a 25 per cent stake in the club, has made a number of unpopular decisions since arriving at the club.
He recently hiked up ticket prices, got rid of child rates and orchestrated a round of redundancies that included stripping Sir Alex Ferguson of his ambassadorial contract.
But this latest move could be the most disliked yet.
According to reports in The Sun, Ratcliffe has pulled funding to the Association of Former Manchester United Players, which was set up in 1985 to help footballers from past eras who, unlike the modern-day stars, couldn’t live their lives off of the huge wages they earned in their playing days.
The charity, which previously received £40,000 a year from Man Utd, puts on four events a year and sees ex-players connected with others who signed professional deals with the club but never made a first-team appearance.
Bosses touched base with those at Old Trafford after two quarterly payments of £10,000 failed to arrive – and were left stunned when they were told of the plans to end all funding as part of Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting mission.
Trustee Jim Elms, 84, who played for United’s youth team and reserves from 1957 to 1960, told The Sun: “We sent a letter to say we’ve not been paid.
“Nobody came out and told us so we had to send another letter. That’s when we started hearing things that it was going to be the end of us.”
United’s chief executive Omar Berrada called him just days before Christmas to inform him of the news.
Among its 300 members are former skipper Bryan Robson, Alex Stepney, Denis Law, Brian Kidd, Arthur Albiston, Frank Stapleton, Denis Irwin and David May.
A source said on the decision: “Everyone knows the club needs to save money but some things just shouldn’t be cut. Some of the players who benefit from this organisation never earned a penny from football and aren’t in the best financial circumstances.”
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