Amanda Staveley has confirmed that her and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi have been on a ‘very productive’ trip to Monaco with a potential sponsor during a post addressing our post-season trip to Australia.
Our co-owner understands the trip – which ended in an 8-0 defeat – was “controversial”, but accepts that revenue-generating tours are “crucial to a club’s commercial success”.
Interestingly, she admits the decision to go was made by “management” – in other words the Saudi PIF – and accepts she must support their calls as a co-owner, despite her own personal views.
As for the trip to Monaco, it’s good news to hear another new sponsorship agreement could be in the pipeline, with the club pushing to boost revenues after recent agreements with Sela, Saudia and Adidas.
In a statement on her Instagram account, she said: “I have seen a lot of comments about the NUFC Australia trip. Which I’d like to address. Besides being a shareholder, I am first and foremost a fan. As a fan, I understand that this trip was controversial. However, personal opinions aside, revenue-generating trips are crucial to a club’s commercial success. The decision to go was taken by management, and ultimately I have to support their decisions.
“Nobody wants a fresh team ready for the new season ready for the new season more than me, and we are doing everything we can to support our manager in achieving this.
“Mehrdad and I had a very productive working trip to Monaco with a potential sponsor, and we are looking ahead to the new season. We are United.”
All the top clubs do it to generate cash and build the brand.
It only seems to be a problem when we do it, it’s been the way in football for years and won’t stop anytime soon.
I’m all for it if it helps us compete.
Porkpie(Quote)
Fair play for speaking out – we aren’t always going to like what the club do but credit where it’s due for communication 👏🏼👍🏼
Sharpy17(Quote)
Nice to see an article about her that isn’t a court case
Curious take that it was the management who directed this .. wonder how that’s squared with PIF having nothing to do with day to day operations. As a wise man once said .. “take some ******* accountability”.
Good to know she’s working on commercial income .. important to grow that aggressively if nufc are to compete with the septic establishment and be part of the future ESL discussions
getreal(Quote)