CEO Ed Woodward officially leaves Man Utd

Martin Macdonald

• 1 Feb 2022 10:24 GMT
• 3 min read

Ed Woodward has officially left his position as chief executive of Manchester United, with Group Managing Director Richard Arnold stepping up to the CEO role.

January 31, 2022 was Woodward's last day at work at Old Trafford.

Woodward joined the club 16 years ago after advising the Glazers family during their period of takeover of the Red Devils, and became CEO in 2012.

He has long been an unpopular figure among the supporters at Man Utd, as he has often been criticised for his conduct in the transfer market as well as allegedly not having a good understanding of the game.

Seen as a businessman and not a "football man", United fans often felt Woodward put profit before anything else.

Following the collapse of the European Super League, of which Woodward was a driving force, he subsequently announced that he would be leaving the club within the next year and that has now happened.

Joel Glazer, Executive Co-Chairman, said: “I would like to thank Ed for his tireless work on behalf of Manchester United during his nine years as Executive Vice-Chairman and 16 years with the club.

“We are now looking forward to Richard and his leadership team opening a new phase in the club’s evolution, with ambitious plans for investment in Old Trafford, the strengthening of our engagement with fans, and continued drive towards our most important objective – winning on the pitch.”

Who is Richard Arnold?

Arnold started at Old Trafford during Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure at the club, when he joined as a commercial director.

In that role Arnold oversaw the performance of the club’s sponsorship business, which included retail, merchandising, apparel and the club’s lucrative licensing and digital media business.

After Ferguson’s retirement, Arnold was then promoted to the role of Group Managing Director at the club, where he was nominated for the SportBusiness International’s Sports innovator of the year list in 2011.

As such, Arnold was eventually brought into the club’s board of directors, where he has often found himself sitting alongside Woodward and chief financial officer Cliff Baty at the club’s quarterly conference calls.

In many ways, Arnold is an administrative operator that has worked his way up the club’s off-the-field roles for the best part of two decades.

Now he’ll be tasked with being in charge of the whole thing.