Manchester United Ltd.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Manchester United fourth quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct the question and answer session. To queue for 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 is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Karina Friedman, Head of Investor Relations for Manchester United.

Thank you, Alison. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Manchester United's fourth quarter fiscal 2021 earnings call. A press release containing our financial results was issued earlier this morning and can be accessed on our investor relations website. This call is being recorded and webcast in a replay of this call. will be available on our website for 30 days. 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 the disclosures included with our earnings release as well as additional risk factor discussions contained in our filings with the SEC. With us today on our call this morning, or this afternoon if you're in the UK, is Ed Woodward, our Executive Vice Chairman, Richard Arnold, our Group Managing Director, Cliff Beatty, our Chief Financial Officer, and Hemant Saseo, our Director of Corporate Development. I will now turn the conference call over to our Executive Vice Chairman for opening remarks, Ed.

Thank you, Karina, and welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As we review our financial results for the 2021 fiscal year, there's little doubt that those 12 months are among the most challenging in the history of Manchester United. While the financial impact from the pandemic is visible, our continued underlying strength is also clear to see, and everyone associated with the club can be proud of the resilience that we've shown through these most testing of times. We said during the depths of the pandemic that the club would emerge in a stronger relative position, and I believe that we're now seeing that borne out as we build towards recovery from a very solid foundation. The most important part of this recovery is, of course, the return of fans to Old Trafford, and it's been fantastic to see and hear the stadium full for the first time in almost 18 months. The amazing atmosphere during the opening home games of the season demonstrates that fans are the lifeblood of the game, and we're so glad to have them back. I'm also delighted to say that we expect to continue to see full-capacity crowds at Old Trafford both Premier League and Champions League games this season. On the pitch, the team has made a strong start in the league and everyone at the club is feeling excited about the rest of the campaign. We significantly strengthened the squad over the summer, the addition of Ronaldo, Varane, Sancho and Heaton. These signings have demonstrated our continued ability to attract some of the world's best footballers to Old Trafford and our firm commitment to helping Oli deliver success on the pitch. Furthermore, we recently sold Dan James to Leeds for a fee of £25 million plus add-ons. We've been clear in our strategy to build a squad with a blend of top-class recruits and homegrown talent, comprising a balance of youth and experience, with the aim of winning trophies and playing attacking football the Manchester United way. As part of this, we've continued to strengthen our recruitment and scouting processes, and we've also increased our investment in the academy to ensure that this success is sustainable. While squad building is a constant process, we're more confident than ever that we're on the right track. The same is true of our women's team, which has made a positive start to the season under our new head coach, Mark Skinner, and we're firmly committed to continuing to build our presence in the women's game. Our optimism about on-field prospects goes hand in hand with the confidence in our robust operational business model to enable continued investment in our football teams and facilities. It's not an accident that we've been able to invest this summer a time when many clubs have been retrenching this reflects a strong commercial model we've built over many many years ensuring that our spending is always underpinned by revenues that we generate ourselves however while we're confident in our relative strength it remains clear that football as a whole faces major financial challenges caused by years of material inflation in wages and transfer fees exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic we are committed to working with the premier league the ECA and UEFA to promote greater financial sustainability at all levels of the game. Global demand for live football is as strong as ever, as evidenced by the robust level of recent domestic and international broadcasting rights deals and record engagement with our own club content. We also remain optimistic regarding the remaining upcoming international rights renewals, notably in North America this autumn. Given increased interest in live sports from OTT providers, coupled with the growing appeal of the sport. There is significant potential for further growth as the world digitises and Manchester United will continue to be at the forefront of that expansion. But no club can succeed on its own. We want to be part of a healthy, vibrant, domestic and European football pyramid, working together with our governing bodies and most importantly the fans to preserve and enhance the magic of our game. As a club, we are committed to those objectives and we look forward to pursuing them in the months and years ahead. I'll now hand you over to Richard for an update on our commercial activities. Thank you.