This summer, Manchester United will fly from From the UK to Kuala Lumpur, from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong back to the UK, from the UK to Stockholm, then Stockholm to New Jersey, New Jersey To Chicago, Chicago to Atlanta and then, finally, Atlanta back home again.
For those keeping score, United’s 2025 summer tours will rack up 25,000 air miles in total. That’s more than the circumference of Earth, or about 11 per cent of the distance to the moon.
It will also mean that Ruben Amorim’s side will have played football in at least nine different countries in the first six months of the calendar year.
It will be 10 if they reach the Europa League final, or 11 if they win the final and qualify for the UEFA Super Cup in Italy. All that before the first half of next season’s European campaign.
United drew 2-2 with Lyon last week. If they navigate the second leg of that tie and a semi-final against Athletic or Rangers, the final in Bilbao will be their 57th game in 2024-25, despite relatively early exits from both domestic cup competitions.
If Amorim harbours any concerns around player welfare, however, he is keeping schtum. This is part of the job description when you manage Manchester United, a club with a global pulse.
The Red Devils will, in what is becoming a growing trend among Premier League clubs with international commercial aspirations, go on a post-season tour as well as a pre-season equivalent this summer.
The post-season jaunt kicks off just three days after United’s last match of 2024-25, against Aston Villa at Old Trafford.
| Date | Opponent | Location | K.O (local time) | Venue |
| 28 May | ASEAN All Stars | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 8:45pm | Bukit Jalil National Stadium |
| 30 May | Hong Kong, China | Hong Kong, China | 8:00pm | Hong Kong Stadium |
| 19 July | Leeds | Stockholm, Sweden | 3:00pm | Strawberry Arena |
| 26 July | West Ham | New Jersey, USA | 7:00pm | MetLife Stadium |
| 30 July | Bournemouth | Chicago, USA | 8:30pm | Soldier Field |
| 3 August | Everton | Atlanta, USA | 5:00pm | Mercedes-Benz Stadium |
But looking at the commercial revenues on offer, it’s clear why Amorim may have bitten his tongue at the behest of Sr Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers, especially given the club’s Profit and Sustainability (PSR) issues.
To justify the sweeping job cuts at Old Trafford and soaring ticket prices, Ineos may feel they have no choice but to be just as aggressive in their approach to raising income as they have to reducing costs.
How much will Man United earn for 2025 summer tours
It’s understood that United will earn just shy of £8m for their post-season trip to Asia, while the meeting with arch rivals Leeds in Sweden and the US-based Premier League Summer Series could be double that.
That means that – at a conservative estimate – the club will generate around £20m in promoter fees and a cut of ticket sales for the six matches themselves.
There will be significant costs too, of course. Flying probably 50 players and staff around the world, putting them up in luxury hotels, and renting out high-end training facilities doesn’t come cheap.
But when all is said and done, United will still comfortably turn an eight-figure profit, especially when you consider tie-ins with club sponsors like Malaysia Airlines, whose deal with the club is worth £10m.
However, as anyone in football finance will tell you, there will be just as many benefits which are harder to quantify and locate on a balance sheet but which can be far more lucrative in the long run.
In the past, United have signed contracts with tour sponsors, sold tonnes of merchandise and – most significantly – nurtured existing fans and created new ones.
Ultimately, a summer tour is a brand-building exercise. It’s about turning more of the 1.1bn followers the club claims to have world wide into hardcore, fee-paying supporters.
Huge commercial opportunities in the United States
The United States is mecca when it comes to increasing commercial income.
There is less resistance to higher prices on the other side of the Atlantic and, of the supposed 36 million football fans in the US, 44 per cent are yet to pick a team to support.
That statistic from CLV Group, a data and insights company specialising in sports and media, is underpinned by some jaw-dropping figures on the revenues up for grabs in America.
European clubs could generate additional revenues of up to £860m in the United States, it is claimed, and having boots on the ground in the country itself is central in that mission.
That’s why European clubs have been almost colonial in their approach to carving up the United States, focusing on specific areas where they think their brands will fly.
And with a US-hosted Club World Cup and co-hosted international World Cup on the horizon, the size of the pie is likely to increase exponentially in the coming years.
Investors have realised this. It’s part of the reason there has been such an influx of American owners into the Premier League since the Glazers’ takeover of United in 2005.
The Red Devils’ PSR situation
One of the only reasons that United are yet to breach PSR is because of the £40m in ‘exceptional costs’ they chalked up to the pandemic during the last three-year assessment window.
That is why, despite the accounts showing losses well over the £105m allowed by the Premier League under PSR, they have not received a points deduction or fine, though the margins are still thin.
The club attributed a significant chunk of that figure to the inability to go on pre-season tours in lucrative commercial markets.
There was no international tour ahead of both 2020-21 and 2021-22 because of travel restrictions.
A particularly lucrative summer in 2025 could – in theory – be the difference between United staying within the Premier League and UEFA’s PSR parameters or breaching them.
The Ineos regime wrote an open letter to supporters earlier this year warning that United needed to tighten their belt or risk a sanction.
And while there are a number of levers they could pull to create more PSR breathing space before passing the burden on to staff and match-going fans, it is true that major changes are needed.
If the club earn, say, £25m in their post and pre-season tours this summer, that would cover the interest on United’s debt, which is the biggest millstone as far as PSR is concerned.
2025’s summer tour will be a big part of that strategy.
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Commercial income: Rivals gaining ground on Man United
For a long time, the arrogant philosophy adopted at Glazer HQ was that, in the commercial stakes, Manchester United were too big to fail.
That illusion has been shattered in recent years, however, with smarter and more ambitious clubs rapidly gaining ground and, in some cases, surpassing United in this department.
The £303m in commercial income the Red Devils in sponsorship, merchandise sales, events and other commercial sources last season represented almost no growth on the previous campaign.
Again, pre-season tours can be central to arresting the slide. United’s brand is the biggest in the Premier League and, if well run, the club would have a huge lead over its rivals financially.
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What has Ruben Amorim said about United’s pre and post-season tours?
All that said, Ruben Amorim is a football manager, not an accountant or brand marketeer.
His A1 priority will be giving his players the conditions they need to go into 2025-26 at peak physical and mental performance.
“Yes of course, the board talked to me about this situation,” Amorim told the press ahead of the Manchester derby last weekend when quizzed about his stance on the post-season tour in Asia.
“We have to look at the context of the club. We are raising our tickets [prices] for our fans.
“We are doing all this so we have also to make sacrifice – and [it] is a small sacrifice. It will be six days and we make contact with our fans around the world.
“They come here every weekend to see games at Old Trafford, so everybody in the club is making sacrifices.
“This is nothing compared to what people are doing to watch our games. We will do our small part.
“We are lucky to be here and we move forward because that tour will help us also to maybe improve the team if we need.”
On player welfare, Amorim said: We try to deal with that. We are going to travel in very good conditions. We are trying to rotate.”
“We want to show our players to our fans in other parts of the world, and my job to manage all the players.
“We’ll try to deal with the different players going to the national team.
“We’ll try to arrange everything and it will not be hard to do that.”
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