Man Utd staff learn brutal Sir Jim Ratcliffe cutback for Europa League final | OneFootball

In the latest cutback of Sir Jim Ratcliffe's tenure as Manchester United co-owner, there will be no complimentary tickets dished out to club staff for the Europa League final against Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao later this month, a report has claimed.

Spurs, by contrast, are said to be handing out a free seat to every full-time employee.

United earned a 7-1 aggregate victory over Athletic Club to book their place in the final which is scheduled for Wednesday, 21 May in the Basque Country. Tickets are naturally in high demand among supporters who have endured a dismal domestic showing from Ruben Amorim's specialists in breaking unwanted records.

Each Premier League side has been afforded an allocation of around 15,000 tickets, yet only a "small number" will be available for United's club staff according to the Daily Mail. Instead, employees have been invited to a screening of the game in Manchester which comes with two drink vouchers. Guests are welcome, although they will have to pay for their beverages.

A United source explained this decision by claiming that the "overwhelming priority is maximising the number of tickets for fans". This is hardly the first blow to morale for the club's increasingly embittered workforce.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has become an increasingly controversial figure at Man Utd / Visionhaus/GettyImages

Ratcliffe has overseen multiple rounds of mass redundancies this season, slashing around 450 jobs in what the club have described as a "transformation plan". Those who have survived the cull have had various privileges revoked in the name of cost-cutting. Staff lunches have been removed, the Christmas party cancelled and even payments to the charity supporting former Manchester United players were controversially stopped.

Past regimes have previously covered the cost of meals, travel and accommodation for European finals, yet Ratcliffe has repeatedly insisted that the club was operating under a disastrous financial model.

"Manchester United would have run out of money at the end of this year," Ratcliffe claimed during a round of face-saving interviews in March. "November this year, the club runs out of cash."

United boast the fourth-largest revenue of any football club on the planet. Tottenham sit ninth on a list dominated by Premier League clubs yet still found enough resources to reportedly offer a free ticket to all 700 permanent staff members for this month's Europa League final.

The club's coffers will be transformed by triumph in the showpiece fixture. United stand to gain in the region of £100m by winning the Europa League and thereby qualifying for the Champions League.