MANCHESTER, England, March 17 (Reuters) - Manchester United ( MANU ) announced on Monday a rise of around 5% in season ticket prices at Old Trafford for 2025-26 in the latest effort to tackle the Premier League club's financial issues.

Prices for tickets to men's matches will increase by an average of 2.50 pounds ($3.25), with the exception of under-16s.

"After 11 consecutive years of price freezes, we increased prices by five percent for the past two seasons and intend to do the same for next season to offset continued rises in operating costs," United's Chief Executive Omar Berrada said.

"We understand that any price rise is unwelcome, especially during a period of underperformance on the pitch, and we listened carefully to the strong arguments put forward by the Fan Advisory Board in favour of a freeze.

"However, the club has decided that it would not be right to keep prices unchanged while costs rise and the club continues to face financial issues.

"We have kept the increase to the lowest possible level and protected our youngest season-ticket holders from any rises, while ensuring the club remains financially strong enough to invest in improving the team."

United are languishing 13th in the Premier League table and thousands of fans staged protests against the club's ownership earlier this month.

The Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) said the latest ticket price increase was "less than many feared" but expressed disappointment that the club had ignored the call for a widespread price freeze.

"For several months we have argued long and hard that the club need to look at the big picture and freeze ticket prices for next season," read a MUST statement.

"Other clubs have done that already and at United it would have sent a powerful message about the need for everyone to pull together to get the club out of the very difficult position it finds itself in."

Having announced 150 to 200 job cuts last month, United last week unveiled plans to build a new two billion pounds, 100,000-seater stadium, which would be the largest in Britain.

United's current total debt, including 300 million pounds in outstanding transfer fees, is in excess of one billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7698 pounds)