Hotel Football, owned by Ryan Giggs, has lost £3.2million in the last two years - and the hospitality firm owes more than £10m in loans, it has been reported.
Giggs – who next week will learn if he will face a retrial over allegations he attacked his live-in lover – runs the company with former Manchester United team-mate Gary Neville.
According to annual accounts for the business - filed this week - the hotel near Old Trafford has haemorrhaged cash in 2020 and 2021. The documents reveal the firm had pulled a restaurant from the National Museum of Football to save cash. Accounts revealed the company behind the business – called Old Trafford Supporters Club Ltd – lost £1,148,879 in 2021 and £2,042,812 the previous year, reports the Daily Star.
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Giggs' fellow director Neville said in comments attached to the figures that trading had not been 'normal' with the world 'in the midst of a pandemic' and the business had been the 'hit drastically' by lockdown restrictions which had 'affected the financial figures'.
Post-pandemic 'challenges around inflation and the labour market continue up to this day', he went on. But he said: "The directors have continued their policy of investing in the hotel to improve operational performance and to promote the Hotel Football brand even post the pandemic year. The directors feel that whatever the case the quality of the brand and of the property they manage cannot be sacrificed."
Occupancy was returning to pre-pandemic levels and this year’s (2022) figures were 'very encouraging'. You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Neville said the firm’s parent company Orchid Leisure Ltd had loaned the hotel business £10.2m to help it survive. "Based on the above the directors are confident that the company will have sufficient funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due for at least the next 12 months," he added.
The former England right-back - a TV football pundit and commentator - built up a string of business interests after retiring from the game in 2011. Neville, 47, set up the Old Trafford Supporters Club in 2012 with Giggs, 48, joining him as a fellow director four months later.
On Wednesday a Manchester Crown Court jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on a charge Giggs assaulted his PR executive ex-girlfriend Kate Greville, 38, causing her actual bodily harm by headbutting her in a row after she confronted him over affairs with eight other women.
Jurors also could not decide if he had coercively controlled her during their relationship or assaulted her sister Emma, 26, by beating after allegedly elbowing her in the jaw when she tried to pull him away from her sibling in the struggle. Prosecutors will reveal next week if Giggs, who denies all the charges, will face a retrial next year (2023).
The judge in the case referred Neville to the Attorney General to consider taking action against him for alleged contempt of court over an Instagram message he posted during the trial.
Neither Giggs nor Neville had responded to the Daily Star's request for comment on Friday (September 2).
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