‘United Against Greed’- 16 Years of Glazer Greed Finally at Boiling Point
It seems fans have finally had enough, as the European Super League fallout has finally boiled the pot of frustration that has been “simmering for 16 years”, As fans of Manchester United strike out against the Glazer ownership.
Despite the European Super League acting as a catalyst for recent protests, Roy from The United Journal stressed the protests were not completely a product of the ESL outrage saying: “The current anger of Manchester United fans is not something that was infused into their minds a week ago”.
The ‘Glazer Out’ movement is something that has had a constant presence in Manchester United culture since the controversial takeover of the American family in 2005, and Roy believes these protests are just the beginning.
“Unless something changes, this movement is expected to continue”.
The relationship between the Glazer family and Manchester United supporters has been strained to say the least since the widely disputed takeover of the Manchester club.
Roy added: “The Glazer family bought the club using loans against the club and its assets, and transferred the debts onto the club, saddling it with a huge amounts of debt”.
Football in England; as much of a brand-based sport it is, is still rooted with the clubs history and fan tradition.
This Americanization of English is football is something the super league threatened, and Roy was among the majority who opposed this, as he added: “They treat the club as a commercial brand, not a football club”.
“They treat the fans as brand customers, not football fans who have invested their soles into United”.
“At present, it’s all the corporate billionaires in charge of everything at the club, most of whom are unattached to the club’s tradition, history and fans sentiments”.
The fact both German clubs: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, snubbed the European Super League demonstrated the positives of the ‘50+1’ system in place in Germany.
The system gives more control to the supporters, with business men and women not able to own the majority of the club allowing fans concerns to be heard.
The United Journal’s Roy gave us his insights on how English football could implement something similar: “Some sort of fan representation at board level is definitely needed in order to secure the future of the football clubs”.
“At the same time, the 50+1 rule may not be the suitable one in England”.
“You need around 2 billion pounds to buy just above the 50% stake required for the German model- this is a huge amount to arrange for, by the fans”.
At this time, we are still waiting to see whether any double standard is present when dealing with potential punishments for the English clubs involved in the European Super League.
Especially at a time when Sheffield Wednesday have been relegated due to a points deduction.
Roy however believed any punishment should be directed only at the ownership.
“There should definitely be punishments, but those should be for the owners and executives and not for the team, players and club staff who were completely unaware of such a scandalous proposal”.
“They not only betrayed UEFA, other clubs in their own league, but they even betrayed their own club staff”.
Full interview with Roy from The United Journal:
