Sir Alex Ferguson and the board of directors for Manchester United have been told they can’t go into the locker room at Old Trafford. This breaks a tradition that goes back to when Sir Matt Busby was manager.

Early on Tuesday, it came out that Ferguson’s multimillion-pound job as an ambassador for the club had been taken away by INEOS, the club’s new part-owner, as part of a plan to cut costs across many areas. 

Also, Mail Sport can reveal that Ferguson, the club’s most successful manager, will no longer be allowed to join the inner sanctum after games. This is a controversial change to the rules. 

United says they haven’t actually told Ferguson he can’t be in the locker room, but they do say that everyone agrees on who can and can’t be there. 

For decades, going to the locker room has been an important part of club life. Ferguson, David Gill, Mike Edelson, and the other members of the football board were always welcome. So were Sir Bobby Charlton and Maurice Watkins, who used to be a director but has since died. 

Ferguson played football for 26 years and won 38 awards. After he retired in 2013, he signed a deal to keep working as a global club ambassador and director. United’s books from 2014 show that Ferguson, who is 82 years old, was paid £2.16m for his services. 

The football board for United is seen as a ceremonial group and is separate from the official board, which is made up of the six Glazer siblings. 

Since INEOS bought a quarter of the club earlier this year, they have made a number of big changes. Mail Sport reported that they let go of 250 people across all areas. Ferguson was told about the changes in person by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of INEOS, at Old Trafford and meeting. 

Ratcliffe, 71, has been a United fan all his life and told the Glaswegian that the club was no longer able to pay him his old salary because of the cuts. Ferguson will stay on as a non-executive board and will still host home games from the director’s box with a table for eight.