Man Utd post-season Asia tour is 'small sacrifice' - Amorim

Manchester United played pre-season games in Scotland, Norway and the United States in 2024

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has defended the club's decision to play games in Malaysia and Hong Kong immediately after the Premier League season finishes next month.

The Red Devils will take on ASEAN All Stars in Kuala Lumpur on 28 May before travelling to play Hong Kong two days later.

United will fly to Asia immediately after their final league game of the season at home to Aston Villa on 25 May.

It is thought the trip will generate about $10m (£7.8m).

United's international players will then join up with their national teams the following week.

Ruben Amorim's side will also travel to the United States as part of the Premier League's pre-season tournament between 26 July and 3 August.

United have a significant fan base in Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines is the club's official commercial airline partner. They last played in the country in 2009 and their previous visit to Hong Kong was in 2013.

When asked if he had been consulted about the trip, Amorim told Sky Sports: "Yes of course. The board talked to me about this situation.

"We have to look at the context of the club. We are raising our tickets [prices] for our fans.

"We are doing all this so we have also to make sacrifice - and [it] is a small sacrifice. It will be six days and we make contact with our fans around the world.

"They come here every weekend to see games at Old Trafford, so everybody in the club is making sacrifices.

"This is nothing compared to what people are doing to watch our games. We will do our small part.

"We are lucky to be here and we move forward because that tour will help us also to maybe improve the team if we need."

Last season, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United flew to Australia for a post-season friendly, which was described as "madness" by BBC pundit Alan Shearer.

The increased workload on elite players has been widely discussed this season, with Fifa's expanded Club World Cup and Uefa's larger Champions League format resulting in FA Cup replays being scrapped to try to ease congestion.

"We try to deal with that. We are going to travel in very good conditions. We are trying to rotate," Amorim said on the issue of player welfare.

"We want to show our players to our fans in other parts of the world, and my job to manage all the players.

"We'll try to deal with the different players going to the national team.

"We'll try to arrange everything and it will not be hard to do that."