Manchester United called the next of kin of beloved late receptionist Kath Phipps to ask about her season tickets just days after her death, a damning report has revealed.
Phipps, who passed away last December at the age of 85, had worked for the club for more than 50 years, having first joined under Sir Matt Busby in September 1968.
After starting out as a switchboard operator, Phipps later took up roles in the stadium offices at Old Trafford and on matchdays, before Sir Alex Ferguson made the popular decision to bring her to United’s Carrington training complex in 2000.
Tributes from players past and present flooded in after the news of her death, with Wayne Rooney describing her as ‘the heart and soul of Manchester United’.
However, The Telegraph have reported that staff were left aghast when the club contacted Phipps’ next of kin to enquire about her season tickets. The call, it is said, took place just two working days after her passing last year.
United said it was a misunderstanding and there was no request to recall the tickets.
Manchester United contacted the next of kin of beloved late receptionist Kath Phipps to enquire about the status of her season tickets just two working days after her passing
Sir Jim Ratcliffe met the universally popular Phipps while touring Carrington in January 2024
She was honoured with a Service to Football Award in 2022 and posed with Sir Alex Ferguson
The development is only likely to add to the mounting outcry over Ineos’ running of the club. It is understood 100 more jobs are under threat in the latest round of redunancies, despite the fact over 250 members of staff were previously culled.
United have lost almost £300m over the past three years, a figure described as unsustainable by those inside the club, and Ratcliffe and his new-look leadership team have taken drastic measures to lower the ballooning costs.
Ferguson’s status as a paid ambassador was removed by the penny-pinching hierarchy while the policy of free travel for staff to attend finals was also binned.
Ratcliffe warned in December that ‘more difficult and unpopular decisions’ would be needed and supporters were angered when ticket prices were hiked up to £66.
The Telegraph also claimed that Phipps’ friends at the club, including several staff members controversially let go as part of Ineos’ far-reaching cost-cutting, worked a daily rota via WhatsApp to ensure she was never alone in her final months.
Phipps built a close bond with many of United’s players and even made an appearance in Netflix’s David Beckham documentary, released in 2023.
In May 2022, she was honoured with a Service to Football Award and Beckham paid tribute to her, saying she ‘really deserved’ the accolade ‘for her services to football, but more importantly for services to the club I love and you love’.
He also described her as the ‘first person I would see when I walked into the training ground reception’ and said he would be ‘forever grateful to her’.
She even made an appearance in Netflix’s David Beckham Documentary, released in 2023
Beckham hailed Phipps as the ‘heartbeat of Manchester United’ in an emotional tribute
Ferguson, meanwhile, lauded Phipps as a ‘great servant to the club’.
A touching United statement released after her death read: ‘We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our beloved colleague Kath Phipps at the age of 85.
‘An omnipresent figure at Manchester United since the late 1960s, Kath worked for the club for over 55 years in a variety of roles, but her contribution went beyond any particular job title.
‘Kath was a one-woman institution, whose memory will be cherished by everyone at the club who had the privilege of knowing her. She said last year: “I can’t imagine doing anything else”. Well, we can’t imagine the place without her.’
