Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is apparently planning a dramatic change at the club, breaching a long-standing norm established by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The 71-year-old has been actively involved in reforming United’s culture, including removing most employees’ access to private cars and requiring those with hybrid working arrangements to return to the office. He also canceled the corporate credit cards of department leaders.
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Ratcliffe’s latest regulation, according to the Daily Mail, will bar non-first-team staff members from dining in the main training facility canteen. Instead, they will be directed to a different lunch room and will not be able to eat the ‘high-performance food’ that the players do.
Critics of the idea fear that barring staff members from the canteen will further alienate United’s playing squad from the club’s supporter base. Others at Old Trafford, however, are said to have backed the idea, believing that some provide a ‘unwanted distraction’ by clinging to the players.
Ratcliffe decision to bar staff from the canteen fundamentally contradicts Ferguson’s ideology, which promoted a spirit of unity during his time at United. He notably guaranteed that everyone employed by the club, from billionaire players to secretaries and tea ladies, dined together in the same area, according to the Express.
He said: “I wanted the younger players to be able to mingle and eat lunch with the staff too, including people like the laundry team and groundsmen. I’d been influenced by what I had learned from Marks and Spencer which, decades ago in harder times, had given their staff free lunches because so many of them were skipping lunch so they could save every penny to help their families.
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