Why Manchester United fans are ecstatic Glazers may sell the club
American family’s ownership of the club has been marred by fan protests, huge debts and poor performance on the pitch.
The billionaire Glazer family are considering putting Manchester United up for sale.
For many Man United fans, that is extremely welcome news.
The Glazers’ ownership of the Premier League club has been deeply unpopular from the start, with the Florida-based family’s 17-year reign marred by fan protests, enormous debt and declining performance on the pitch.
“It is an understatement to say that fans will be happy – the contempt for the Glazers runs deep,” Ahmed Bilal, the editor of the football blog Man Utd News, told Al Jazeera.
Why has the Glazers’ ownership of Man United been so controversial?
After beginning his investment in Man United with the purchase of a 2.9 per cent stake in 2003, late real estate mogul Malcolm Glazer took ownership of the club in 2005.
The leveraged buyout costing 790 million British pounds ($955m) relied on a significant amount of borrowed money that was secured against the club’s own assets.
The deal immediately sparked uproar among fans, who slammed the club’s new owners for saddling the then hugely profitable team with huge levels of debt.
Despite paying an estimated 743 million pounds ($898m) in interest payments since then, Man United today has outstanding debts of about 500 million pounds ($604m) – almost as much as it did in 2005.
Fans have also been incensed by the club’s paying out of dividends – averaging at about 22 million pounds ($266m) per season – to shareholders, the biggest group of whom are the Glazers themselves.
To add insult to injury, Man United, once one of the world’s most successful clubs, have failed to deliver on the pitch in recent years despite the huge sums of money swirling around the team.
The club has not won a trophy since 2017 – a feeble performance for a team with 20 league titles, more than any other club, and the distinction of being the only English side to have taken home the treble of the European Cup, domestic league and domestic cup.
“All of this has turned United from the leading club in England to now playing catch up to five or six other major teams in the league,” Bilal said.
“There is a lot of anger amongst fans at the scale of the financial outflow from United towards the Glazers with nothing to show for it in terms of the club’s improvement or its future.”
Tensions hit a new peak last year when hundreds of Man United fans broke into the club’s home ground, Old Trafford, to protest plans to join a proposed European Super League, which critics branded elitist and anti-competitive.
In an interview with television host Piers Morgan earlier this month, star play Cristiano Ronaldo, who exited the club by “mutual agreement” this week, joined the criticism of the Glazers, claiming they had no interest in the welfare of the club.
“They will get money from the marketing – the sport … they don’t really care, in my opinion,” Ronaldo said.
Scott Patterson, the editor of football blog Republik Of Mancunia, said the Glazers have invested little in the club, to the point where its stadium and training ground have fallen into disrepair.
“They don’t have a clue about football and have employed too many people who share their lack of knowledge, who have made poor footballing decisions that have set us back years,” Patterson told us.
-al jazeera
