Man Utd fans blast Sir Jim Ratcliffe after he cuts £40k donation to charity helping club icons despite £23bn fortune
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MAN United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been dubbed Scrooge after cutting funding for a charity helping former players. United previously gave £40,000 a year to the trust, which fears it will fold without the lifeline. Supporters said it was a “kick in the teeth” following £23billion tycoon Sir Jim’s ticket price rises and a Christmas do ban.
![[Man United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, worth £23billion, has been dubbed Scrooge after cutting funding for a charity helping former players]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/wembley-manchester-united-co-owner-904927549.jpg?strip=all&w=951)
It follows a series of petty penny-pinching measures by Sir Jim, Britain’s richest man who is worth an estimated £23billion. The club had previously given a yearly sum to the Association of Former Manchester United Players, which was set up in 1985 to help footballers from bygone eras who earned nothing like the megabucks of today’s superstars.
![[Payments to the charity helping some of the club's older players, including former skipper Bryan Robson, have been terminated]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bryan-robson-manchester-united-ball-1122881.jpg?strip=all&w=645)
It puts on four events a year where ex-players can rub shoulders with others who signed professional forms with the club but never made a first-team appearance. But when the charity contacted Old Trafford after two quarterly payments of £10,000 failed to arrive, it was shocked to learn it plans to end all funding as part of Sir Jim’s cost-cutting drive.
![[Red Devils great Denis Irwin is among 300 members of the Association of Former Manchester United Players]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NINTCHDBPICT000960098211.jpg?strip=all&w=696)
Trustee Jim Elms, 84, who played for United’s youth team and reserves from 1957 to 1960, called the move “ridiculous”. He said the charity does “so much good for the club for so little”, and has urged it to reconsider. He 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.
![[The tycoon has launched a ruthless cost-cutting drive since his minority takeover of the club was announced]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AP-RATCLIFFE-SCROOGE_COMP.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
