Manchester United Ltd.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Manchester United Learnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you have questions, please press star 1. If anyone has difficulty hearing the call, please press star 0 for operator assistance at any time. We would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Corinna Freedman, Head of Investor Relations for Manchester United.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Manchester United's third quarter 2020 earnings call. A corresponding press release containing our financial results was issued earlier this morning and can be accessed on our IR websites. Today's call is being recorded and webcast, and a replay will also be available on our site for 30 days thereafter. Before we begin, and as a matter of formality, we would like to remind everyone that this conference call will include estimates and forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Any such estimates or forward-looking statements should be considered, along with a cautionary note included with our earnings release. as well as additional risk factor discussions in our filing with the SEC. With us on the call today, Ed Woodward, our Executive Vice Chairman, Richard Arnold, our Group Managing Director, Cliff Beatty, our Chief Financial Officer, and Hemant Asayo, our Head of Corporate Finance. I will now turn the conference call over to our Executive Vice Chairman, Ed Woodward, for his opening remarks. Ed?

Thank you, Corinna, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. These are unprecedented times and I would like to take a moment at the very top of this call to say that I hope you and your families are staying healthy and safe. On behalf of everyone at Manchester United, I would also like to send the club's profound sympathies to all of those suffering directly from the COVID-19 virus, to those who may have lost family members to this virus and to those essential and frontline workers who every day bravely risk infection doing their normal jobs. You're all in our thoughts and we're very grateful for your sacrifice and for your service. We've all witnessed the tireless work being carried out in hospitals and other care settings within our local communities and by charities dealing with the economic fallout from the crisis. We take seriously our responsibility to support these efforts. I'm proud of the way everyone at Manchester United has responded. From our staff who packaged up 30,000 items of food and drink from club stocks for local charities, to the staff volunteering to cook 60,000 meals for National Health Service staff in Greater Manchester hospitals. These are just two among many examples of how our people are rallying to help, backing the club and the Manchester United Foundation which continues to expand its charitable response in the UK and overseas. We believe these initiatives are not only the right thing to do but they're also essential to upholding the club's values with which our fans around the world identify. So we will continue to work with our foundation to support vulnerable communities as the social and economic impacts of the pandemic unfold. Clearly, it has caused significant disruption to our operations, including the postponement of all matches since mid-March and the temporary closure of our retail, catering and visitor facilities at Old Trafford. While it is too soon to know with any certainty if or when those measures can be fully relaxed, we are optimistic that it will soon be possible to resume playing football. Our men's first team has begun a phased return to training this week, with rigorous medical protocols in place to manage risk. Subject to government and Premier League shareholder approval, including input from medical staff and players, we anticipate domestic games could restart again in June. Furthermore, all indications from UEFA are that the culmination of the Europa League could be during August. We remain in constant dialogue with the Premier League, the FA and UEFA about the next steps towards returning to play, while continuing to protect the health of our players, staff and the wider public. Thank you very much. The 19-20 season. So there is clear momentum behind efforts to get football going again across Europe's major leagues. All in all, as we sit here today, as many as 32 European countries are expected to restart their domestic leagues by the end of June. As in Germany and elsewhere, it is now inevitable that our matches will initially be played behind closed doors when the season resumes. This is as disappointing for us as it is for our fans. so we hope it will allow the Men's 13 to complete all of its competitions in the current 19-20 season by the end of August and to start next season in time to target completion of next season still in May 2021. While there are many still many uncertainties to resolve we're looking forward to Ollie and the team returning to the pitch soon to defend the strong momentum Cliff will walk you through some of the assumptions that drive our scenario planning. There are still profound challenges ahead for football as a whole and it is safe to say it will not be business as usual for some time. Our club is built on solid foundation. We remain one of the most popular teams in the most followed global sport and have created a strong financial base with diverse revenue streams. However, the repercussions of the pandemic are now being felt widely across the football community, not just by clubs, but also by players, supporters, broadcasters, sponsors and many other stakeholders. We have a shared interest in protecting our sport during this period. So it's crucial that we work together in a spirit of solidarity, to maximise their chances of coming back strongly as the pandemic recedes. We must recognise that this crisis will not disappear overnight and that the world which emerges will be different from how it was before. That will create challenges for football like many other industries but it also brings an opportunity for innovation and creativity as we explore options for resuming football in ways that still protect public health. While nobody is claiming that football is the most important thing at this time, Sport can play a role in helping restore morale and bringing people back together as societies recover. Indeed, the absence of live football and the unifying experiences it creates for billions of people around the world has reminded us all of how much the sport means to us. With that in mind, we remain firmly optimistic about the long-term prospects for the club and for our exciting young team once we have worked our way through what is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary testing periods in the 142-year history of Manchester United. This club is built on resilience in the face of adversity and those qualities are being proven once again now. With that, I will hand over to our Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold, who will update you on the key business activities. Thank you.