The Glazer family has denied rumours that they intend to sell Manchester United to a Qatar-based firm as the club revealed high merchandise sales.

The publicly listed firm said that discussions have not taken place, the club is not up for sale and offers will not be entertained by the owners. The new results revealed revenues of £156m during the six-month period leading up to December, an 8% rise on the previous year.

Commercial sales were up 30% to £50m, in spite of calls to boycott merchandise. But matchday turnover decreased slightly, dropping by 0.4% to £52.4m, preliminary financial results showed. Some fans have engaged in a campaign to encourage fans to stop spending on United’s commercial offerings in protest to the Glazer’s ownership.

Instead, these fans have been wearing the green and gold of Newton Heath, Manchester United’s predecessor and a report claimed that sales were down 10%. But the club responded by insisting this was only true of the Old Trafford megastore, and reflected the fact that the club has had less home games so far this season.

However, while the campaign may have impacted local fans, the results suggested that spending by the club’s largely international fanbase has risen steadily. United’s commercial director Richard Arnold said that the report shows an area of the globe (in the vicinity of the stadium) which only has 14 of the club’s 333 million global fans.