'It's a risk' - Manchester United's new £2bn stadium could 'inhibit' investment in the team, admits CEO Omar Berrada

Manchester United have just announced plans to build a new 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford. The new stadium is expected to cost around £2 billion and take approximately five years to build. United's proposed new stadium is also been tipped to lead the United Kingdom's bid to host the 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The club's plans come at a time when the team is struggling on the pitch. Ruben Amorim's side languish down in 14th place in the Premier League table, while co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has admitted recently some of the squad are "not good enough and overpaid". However, building a new stadium and a new team at the same time may not be possible, with Berrada admitting investment in the squad could be affected.

Berrarda told reporters: “That is a risk. 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. We’d love to open the new stadium with Ruben as head coach."

Manchester United's only chance of silverware this season lies in the Europa League. The Red Devils will aim to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the competition on Thursday when they face Real Sociedad in the second leg of their last 16 tie with the scores level at 1-1.