Keith Wyness reveals how Sir Jim Ratcliffe move is impacting Man United – ‘I’ve spoken to affected people’
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cutbacks at Manchester United are impacting the club’s commercial operations.
That is according to former Everton, Aston Villa and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, who exclusively told Football Insider Ratcliffe has prevented staff from offering sweeteners to keep sponsors happy at Old Trafford.
Man United have faced multiple issues over the past few months after losing significant sponsorship deals.
Marriott International – the world’s largest hotel company – decided not to extend its sponsorship deal with the club after it expired at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
Meanwhile, the Manchester giants are also currently without a training kit partner after their Tezos deal, which was worth around £24million a year, came to an end last summer.
How Sir Jim Ratcliffe is approaching sponsor deals at Man United
The Athletic reported on 5 February Man United’s shortfall in sponsorship revenue was on the agenda at the recent executive committee meeting at the club’s Carrington training complex, where Joel and Avram Glazer were in attendance.
The news outlet revealed the Glazers have voiced their concerns about the club’s commercial performance, with Jean-Claude Blanc, chief executive of INEOS Sport, now becoming more actively involved at Old Trafford.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness revealed what ex-Man United employees have told him about the club’s commercial operations.
“We’re seeing things like the training kit and the shirt sleeve sponsors still open at the moment, which are big ones for a club like United,” said Wyness.
“You would think those have been easy to do, but there’s also the stories that are coming out from the people I have spoken to, ex-United employees, who are saying that a lot of it is to do with the cutbacks that INEOS in particular have done in terms of the commercial staff, where it’s very difficult to have that relationship with a sponsor, where certain key people sell the sponsor in and then service them, and they become almost joined at the hip.
“If those people are removed, it’s very hard to actually replicate that relationship and handle it.”
How Man United staff have been told to speak with sponsors
Wyness revealed Man United are cutting back on their customer services following changes to their commerical operations.
“Now, as I understand it as well from speaking to people, the sort of feeling has been that in the past that those people that handled the sponsor relationships always had something in their back pocket to give to sponsors as extras if things weren’t going right on the pitch and to keep them sweet if you like, whether it be extra shirts, extra tickets, whatever it happened to be,” said Wyness.
“They were always able to do that, and it does seem now that INEOS are very keen on saying what’s in the contract is all you’re going to get. There are no extras. I think they’re cutting back on customer services is what I would say.
“Also, you’ve got to look at how the performance on the pitch has impacted bonuses coming in from sponsors as well, so yes, it’s not been a great picture for United. They’ve cut back the staff and, as I say, they’ve not performed on the pitch.”
Man United’s £666.5m worth of revenue in 2024-25 was boosted by £333.3m of commercial income, but those figures could quite easily drop this season.
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