Manchester United Ltd.

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

Thank you, Kate. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Manchester United's second quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call. A press release containing our financial results was issued earlier today and can be accessed on our Investor Relations website. This call is being recorded and webcast, and 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. Members of our executive leadership team Participating on the call today include Richard Arnold, our newly appointed chief executive officer, John Murtaugh, our football director, Colette Roche, our COO, Victoria Timpson, our CEO of Alliances and Partnerships, Phil Lynch, our CEO of Digital Products and Experiences, Cliff Beatty, our CFO, and Hemant Asayo, our chief strategy officer. I will now turn the conference call over to Richard for his opening remarks. Richard?

Thank you, and welcome to everyone joining. It's great to be with you today, and I'm honored to be joining this call in my new role as CEO. Before we begin today, I want to start by acknowledging the events that are happening in Ukraine. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by events there, and we echo the desire for peace displayed by our manager and players prior to the game at the weekend. You'll have noticed that we have added a few new speakers to our normal lineup. Earlier this month, we introduced a new leadership structure. And shortly, you'll hear directly from some of the members of our executive leadership team. Alongside myself, this group of expert, empowered leaders is tasked with helping to evolve the club with a shared mission to support our football teams in delivering the titles and trophies that we know Manchester United should be competing for. This mission is our central objective as a football club, and we're focused on building a winning culture to achieve it. You'll be hearing more from our football director, John Murtagh, in a few moments about these efforts. But I want to stress that everyone at the club is aligned on a clear strategy to deliver sustained success on the pitch and a sustainable model of it. This will include strengthening the role of fans at the heart of the club, and I'll share more details on the progress that we've made in that area over the last six months shortly. It will also include fostering a culture to promote a positive impact on the environment and society alongside the greater football industry. For particular relevance to our audience today, we also expect to continue to deliver a sustainable economic model that enables our on-pitch success. Crucial to economic sustainability at our club and for all clubs in the football pyramid is verifiable and independent third-party partner revenue streams that reflect fair market values for commercial transactions. We support the Premier League's recently adopted new associated party transaction rules in which all sponsorship deals worth more than a million pounds will now be vetted by the league to determine if these associated party revenues adequately reflect current market conditions. Sustainability of the football pyramid has also been driven by significant global demand for broadcast matches and live football content. And it's been a banner year for football rights negotiations, with records set for both UEFA and the Premier League. For the Premier League, we note that revenues received for international rights are expected to increase approximately 30% overall versus the prior year. This will be the first cycle in which the international rights revenues will surpass UK domestic rights revenues. Also critical to sustainability of the pyramid is any club's relationship with its fans. In advance of the numerous recommendations resulting from Tracy Crouch's independent fan-led review of football governance, we established a new fans advisory board. in addition to the expanded fans forum quarterly meetings already held. We also recently announced a new role of head of fan engagement, an important appointment to drive a new area of fan and club relations. This club is a Manchester institution with truly global appeal, and digital innovation is key to that. Taking the club into a new era of digital engagement is a fundamental opportunity and a strategic imperative. Earlier this month, we announced a new and exciting partnership with Tezos, and we'll be further exploring the development of new products, services, and virtual experiences, including blockchain-enabled fan offerings, with the objective of enhancing engagement for the next generation. I'll now hand the call over first to John Murtagh, our football director, who will provide an update on our football activities. John.