Professional footballers should be paid for performance with players granted City-style bonus packages, Manchester United's chief executive believes.

David Gill says he would like to adopt a salary scheme for players that rewarded them for winning games and performing well individually.

With top earners on Manchester United's payroll such as Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs, Mr Gill acknowledged that salaries "won't be coming down".

About 50 per cent of Man United's total revenues go on players' salaries, a level Mr Gill said was "not uncomfortable" for the world's biggest football club.

The English Premier League leaders are also looking outside sport for a chief operating officer to handle the day-to-day running of the Premiership club, as it plans for what it believes will be "dramatic growth" in revenues.

Mr Gill told the Financial Times that the new chief operating officer would oversee all revenue streams, finance, human resources, legal and property issues and IT.

The club also revealed that it expected to announce a new commercial director in the next few weeks to expand the club's brand around the world.

The club's first financial results since it was taken private by the Glazer family reveal pretax profit tripled to £30.8 million (€46.8 million). - (Financial Times service)