Manchester United shares leap following Moyes sacking
MANCHESTER United’s shares yesterday soared to their highest price since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson following confirmation that his successor David Moyes had been sacked.
Shares leapt more than seven per cent to $19 on the New York Stock Exchange, before closing at $18.78, after the Premier League football club announced the dismissal of its manager just 10 months into his six-year contract. The last time United’s share price touched $19 had been in early May 2013, days before Ferguson’s unexpected departure was announced.
Despite having more than five years left on his contract, Moyes is thought to have received just one year’s salary, or around £4m, in compensation, due to a clause activated by United’s failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League, which was confirmed by defeat at Everton on Sunday.
The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust said the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, not Moyes, were the “cause of the malaise”. They added: “The sooner the Glazers recognise that United needs to reinvest its own revenues and that there is no surplus to cream off the sooner they’ll realise they need to cut and run before the market corrects the vastly inflated valuation of Manchester United.”
United have placed long-serving player-coach Ryan Giggs in temporary charge.