MANCHESTER, England (AP) - New American owner Malcolm Glazer increased his controlling stake in Manchester United on Friday when two senior club officials sold him their shares.
According to an announcement on the London Stock Exchange, chief executive David Gill sold his 11,535 shares to Glazer's Red Football Ltd. at a price more than three times what he paid for them.
The club's group finance director, Nick Humby, also sold his 2,546 shares at a profit of around 35 per cent.
Glazer became majority shareholder of Man United on May 16 in a 790-million-pound ($1.8 billion Cdn) takeover - most of it borrowed money - of the world's richest soccer club. He owned more than 76 per cent of the shares before Friday's purchase.
Glazer is offering to buy out all remaining shareholders and hopes to take the club off the stock market by June 22.
The move came on the same day that a British newspaper reported that Glazer plans to raise ticket prices by 54 per cent over the next five years.
The Times of London based its front-page report on ''previously unseen documents'' outlining Glazer's plans to increase revenue at the club.
The paper said the cost of tickets for Champions League games next season would go up by 25 per cent.
The Times also said that Manchester United will stage an exhibition game every year in Tampa, raising two million pounds ($4.6 million Cdn) in revenues.
The price of an average United home game ticket is currently 30 pounds ($68.50 Cdn). Under Glazer's plans, that would increase to 46 pounds ($105.72 Cdn) by 2010, the Times said.
The 2010 prices would still be just below the current cost for a ticket at Chelsea, the most expensive in the league.
But Man United fans' groups, which have fiercely opposed Glazer's takeover, said the prices will be out of their reach.
''People are so disillusioned with the massive increases they are being asked to pay, it will just turn more and more fans off,'' Nick Towle, chairman of Shareholders United, told BBC Radio Five.
''And how is (Glazer) going to fill an expanded stadium when people are leaving in droves? It's very bad for his business plan.''
The club has already announced plans to expand Old Trafford stadium from 67,800 to 76,000 within the next two years.
''The drive for commercialization is becoming too much for most fans,'' Towle said. ''It's really beginning to create a big problem, and that's just before fans stop buying the products and merchandise, which will also increase in price.''
Glazer has appointed his three sons - Joel, Bryan and Avram - to the United board.
Reacting to The Times report, an unidentified spokesman for Joel Glazer, who is also an executive vice president of the Buccaneers, told the BBC that nothing had been finalized.
According to the Times, manager Sir Alex Ferguson will be limited to spending a maximum of 25 million pounds ($57.1 million Cdn) per season on recruiting new players. That's well short of the 30 million ($68.5 million Cdn) he paid last season for just one player, England striker Wayne Rooney.
Glazer also hopes to raise annual revenue from a current 173 million pounds ($395.3 million Cdn) to 246 million pounds ($561.2 million Cdn) by 2010.