The Glazer family effectively wanted Man United’s rivals to foot the bill for an Old Trafford rebuild as part of the Project Big Picture and Super League breakaway plans.

Problems at United’s home ground were laid bare after their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last Sunday as areas of the stadium, including the away dressing room, flooded after heavy rainfall.

In attendance was a regeneration taskforce who have been charged with planning either an Old Trafford rebuild or constructing a new stadium entirely, with the latter now appearing to be the favoured direction.

The plans have accelerated following the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is now the club’s single largest shareholder after acquiring a 27 per cent stake in February.

Prior to the Manchester-born billionaire’s arrival, the Glazers had continually proven themselves resistant to investing their own money into infrastructure projects at the club.

That still appears to be the case as the club have admitted that a new stadium project – which is likely to cost in the region of £2billion – would require external funding.

And documents seen by TBR show that the Avram and Joel Glazer wanted other clubs to contribute to a central infrastructure fund that would have paid for updates at the 75,000-seater stadium.

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The Glazers’ controversial plan to fund Old Trafford rebuild

Avram and Joel Glazer were chief architects of both the Project Big Picture and European Super League plots in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

The plans for Project Big Picture, which would have seen a dramatic restructuring of the English pyramid, had a provision for a central infrastructure fund from which clubs could draw.

The dossier detailing the proposal sent to clubs and other stakeholders at the time shows that 4.3 per cent of annual Premier League revenue would be funnelled into the infrastructure fund.

Under the terms of the proposal, United would have been eligible to reveive £250m in assistance payments towards the cost of capital investment projects – e.g stadium developments or training ground upgrades.

The eligible payments were weighted according to how long a club had been in the top flight, which cynics would suggest favours the already financially elite.

How much could United earn from a new stadium?

The Project Big Picture plan is now a thing of the past and the United hierarchy will need to dig deep or find a willing backer for their stadium plans.

But if talk of a 90,000-seater stadium is accurate, United could earn as much as £200million per season in matchday income. That’s £600m over the course of a financial fair play (PSR) cycle.

They are already the biggest annual matchday earners in the Premier League with £136m, some way ahead of second-place Spurs with £117.6m.

But the earning potential of a new stadium, one which reflects their huge global brand, would supercharge that figure and, by extension, their playing budget.