MANCHESTER UNITED are giving strong consideration to increasing season-ticket prices to help with the club’s enormous interest payments, despite being acutely aware such a move would increase the sense of animosity that has led to fans protesting against the ruling Glazer family.

The Glazers have begun discussions with the club’s England-based directors about next season’s prices, with an official announcement due in the next month, and the early talks have been geared towards United continuing their habit of making supporters pay more every year since the Americans took control in 2005.

Season tickets have gone up by an average of 48 per cent in that time, and by as much as 69 per cent in some areas of Old Trafford, but the Glazers are said to be largely unmoved by the prospect of further antagonising the supporters, placing more emphasis on how to increase match-day revenue at a time when the club have €780 million-plus worth of borrowings and paid €74 million in interest payments last year.

One source close to the family explained their thinking: “Will the club’s financial issues affect their decision-making? Yes. Will the current climate of the protests and support anger influence them? Not at all.”

United were the only club in the Premier League not to reduce or freeze season-ticket prices for the current season. That hike attracted strong criticism from supporters’ groups and there was more anger in January when the Glazers launched a prospectus in January to seek €560 million worth of new bond loans.

“While other Premier League clubs have experienced a flattening or reduction in ticket prices in response to the economic downturn, we were able to increase aggregate ticket prices for the 2009-’10 season by 2.5 per cent,” it read.