Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been accused of secretly cancelling Manchester United's long-standing payments to a charity which provides support to the club's former players.

Ratcliffe has overseen a series of controversial cost-cutting measures. A vast number of redundancies were followed by increases in ticket prices and the reduction of the staff's annual Christmas gift.

Sir Alex Ferguson's ambassadorial role has also been terminated, while staff were not given free transport to last season's FA Cup final and saw their Christmas party cancelled.

Now, a trustee of the Association of Former Manchester United Players (AFMUP) has accused the club of terminating their payments - believed to be £40,000 annually - to the charity, which first began back in 1985, without even informing the charity.

"We sent a ­letter to say we’ve not been paid," trustee Jim Elms told The Sun. "Nobody came out and told us so we had to send another letter. That's when we started hearing things that it was going to be the end of us.

"Omar [Berrada, CEO] was non-committal. He's going to meet us again in January but he said he couldn't see it changing. He didn't seem to think that we were a necessity.

"We've ran it since 1985. Keeping the old players together. Looking after the ones that couldn't pay for funerals. I just can't understand them myself. It's ridiculous.

"We give away around £10-20,000 to charity, mostly children's charities in the local area. We've had £20,000 this year but not the rest of it."

READ THE LATEST MAN UTD NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP