MANCHESTER United has found a novel way of reducing its wage bill it gives its employees the boot. Nothing novel about that you may say. Except in this case the employees are worth money. Lots of money £4.3 million sterling to be exact.

The publicly quoted English football club sold several players to reduce its wage bill by 10 per cent with Andrei Kanchelskis the man who set up Russia's first goal in Lansdowne Road on Wednesday night accounting for most of it.

A £6 million contract with the video group VCI netted a £2.5 million cash payment, with a further £3.5 million to be won in royalties over the next 30 months.

The club needed the cash boosts. Although pretax profits for the six months to December last more than doubled to £15.3 million, sales and operating profits were hit by the lower crowd capacity at the club's stadium where the £28 million North Stand is being developed. This also had an effect on the club's conference and catering and merchandising revenues.