Manchester United take £22m hit from sacking of Ruben Amorim

Manchester United have taken a £22m hit from the sacking of their former manager Ruben Amorim but cut their losses in half thanks to improved performance on the pitch and the cost-cutting zeal of the co-owner Jim Ratcliffe.United’s successful pursuit of Champions League football under Michael Carrick drove a 57% rise in broadcast income during the third quarter of the financial year to nearly £65m, as more of the club’s games were picked for TV.The extra cash helped the club to increase its forecast for full-year revenue to between £655m and £665m, up from £640m-£660m predicted before. Despite the improvement, annual revenue on that scale would almost exactly match 2025, when United fell to an all-time low of eighth in Deloitte’s Football Money League.As well as boosting income, the club has embarked on a ruthless cost-cutting drive since Ratcliffe bought a minority stake in 2024 and took charge of sporting operations. Even as the club spent about £260m on players in 2025-26, the petrochemicals billionaire pressed on with cost cutting that has led to the axing of hundreds of staff, the closure of the staff canteen and the substitution of free lunches with fruit.The result of the cuts has been a £19m decrease in operating expenses for the first nine months of the year, to £525m. The saving was more than offset by the cost of sacking Amorim in January. The accounts show that the Portuguese and his backroom staff received a payoff of up to £16.7m, and there was an associated £5.2m non-cash impact of writing off costs relating to their contracts.“The cost of removing managers continues to haunt the club,” said Stefan Borson, a football finance expert who is head of sport at the law firm McCarthy Denning.Overall, rising revenue and falling costs delivered an improvement in profitability. The club pointed to its operating performance, which strips out factors such as debt interest payments. On that basis, the club reported a £37.7m profit in the first nine months, compared with a £3.2m loss in the same period of 2025.The club still made an overall loss before tax of £18m, factoring in costs such as £20m in payment of interest on debt, including a facility of £480m associated with the Glazer family’s takeover of the club in 2005. But the foray into the red was less than half the £36m loss reported after nine months last year.“A solid set of numbers with few surprises,” Borson said, adding that the predicted £655m-£665m revenue for this financial year was now a “base case” for United, because the club did not have European football or a training kit sponsor this season.The online gambling company Betway has agreed to sponsor United’s training kits next season, when Premier League clubs have agreed not to advertise gambling on the shirts they play in.The deal is thought to be worth £20m, while Borson said United could expect to earn about a further £80m thanks to qualification for the Champions League under Carrick, the former United midfielder who became interim manager following Amorim’s departure and on Friday was given the job on a permanent basis.