Omar Berrada has admitted it is a “risk” for Manchester United to try to build a world-class team and venue at the same time. The club announced on Tuesday they planned to construct a 100,000-seat ground on land adjacent to Old Trafford.
Berrada hopes United can move into the £2bn stadium by the start of the 2030-31 season but said the cost of building it could have an impact, acknowledging that Arsenal and Tottenham struggled to juggle building a ground and fighting at the top.
“That is a risk,” United’s CEO said. “Clearly it’s something we want to avoid. We don’t want to inhibit our ability to invest in the team, for us to continue being competitive while we are building a new stadium.
“There’s various ways around that and one of the things we are looking at is to shorten the construction timelines so we can have a new stadium within five years. That’s our ambition.
“In the meantime, by getting our finances back in order and becoming profitable, we believe that we can be very competitive. The big, big benefit that this club has is that it has the biggest fanbase in the world and therefore the ability to be the No 1 in terms of revenues that it generates.”
Berrada said he hoped Ruben Amorim would be in the dugout when United move ground. “We’d love to open the new stadium with Ruben as head coach,” he said. The Portuguese has a contract to June 2027 with a club option of an additional year.
