The Disturbing Truth

A glance at this morning’s newspapers reveals the disturbing truth behind the ownership of Manchester United.

News has emerged of the Glazer family’s desperate attempts to raise cash and sooth the club’s swelling debts, owed to various financial institutions.

Since purchasing the club back in 2005, largely off the back of money borrowed from banks, the Glazers have seen debts rise to over £700 million as interest on the repayments soar.

And now drastic action is being taken by the club’s American owners as they attempt to raise sufficient capital and in turn reduce interest payments.

This action has come in the form of a ‘bond issue,’ an in depth prospectus that seeks investors to purchase bonds in the club and in turn receive a return on their investment over a period of time.

The Glazer family are hopeful the scheme will attract enough investment to pay off a large chunk of the United’s debt and provide them with a longer time frame to pay off investors.

But of greater concern to supporters will be the small print of the 322- page ‘bond issue’ that boasts of the potential sale of Old Trafford and the club’s Carrington training complex, a move that would be sure to spark widespread condemnation.

The revelation that the club will also continue to ‘maximise ticket revenue’ as a result of success on the pitch is yet further confirmation that fans will continue to pay through the nose to watch football at the home of the Premier League champions.

There is also the admittance of a ‘high degree of risk’ for investors, not least if United were to fail to qualify for the Champion’s League or make strong progress in all other competitions.

Such failings could result in falling attendances and a reduction in revenue, which the prospectus acknowledges could ‘adversely affect our financial health.’

The financial repercussions of the debt loaded onto the club could prove terminal and fans are surely beginning to question the lack of spending since the £80 million sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid last summer.

The official line from Sir Alex Ferguson was that the market was over inflated and didn’t represent value for money and so United instead opted for the economy purchases of Michael Owen and Luis Antonio Valencia.

But, this assertion is somewhat contradicted by the bond issue itself, which clearly states that the Glazer family plan to transfer £70 million from the club’s accounts into one of the Glazer’s holding companies and pay off another chunk of debt.

Indeed with such vast sums of money being sucked out of the club it is surely unlikely that Ferguson has £80 million at his disposal to buy the marquee name of which United are bereft.

Of course the summer months will be a true indicator of just how tight the noose has been tightened around Ferguson’s transfer spending as United plunge deeper and deeper into the wilderness of debt.

A Bleak New Chapter

It’s May 12th, 2005, and the sun shines brightly over Old Trafford as the morning dew glistens off the hallowed turf.

Yet behind this picturesque exterior, a murky story is developing; a plot that has been three years in the making is coming to its conclusion.

But this novel is no fairytale and the happy ending that has followed many recent campaigns has been replaced by a final chapter more accustomed to a Shakespearean tragedy.

Manchester United’s domestic dominance is over, toppled by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the league and dumped out of the group stages of the Champion’s League.

But overshadowing the club’s on-field troubles is the impending takeover by US Sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer, taking the Red Devils out of the hands of the people and into American clutches.

Since 2003, rumours have dominated the British press regarding the ownership of England’s most famous club, as the Glazer family began to purchase shares at an alarming rate.

Manchester United is on death row, the club’s freedom hanging by a thread as it awaits the news all those connected with the club, fear most.

And this morning, that moment has come; journalists across the globe are reporting of a new dynasty at Old Trafford, the club’s share price rockets and the back pages of the nation’s press predict a bleak new chapter.

Having secured the 28.7% stake owned by Irish racing tycoons JP Mcmanus and John Magnier, Malcolm Glazer has over 70% of the club, a mere 5% shy of accessing United’s vault, removing the club from the stock exchange and beginning his Old Trafford dictatorship.

Fans have rallied together, protesting in unison against this dark regime that threatens to plunge United deep into the red.

Supporters are gripped with the fear of rising ticket prices and financial experts warn of an aggressive business plan that could rip the heart and soul out of the club.

But the battle is lost, the Glazer juggernaut has rolled into town, armed with suitcases crammed with borrowed cash and the American flag is merely days from being planted at the Theatre of Dreams.

Fast forward five years and the fears of 2005 have been realised, thousands of working class followers have fled, forced out as the price of 90 minutes of football rises year upon year.

In their place are a new breed of fan, sold the ‘United dream’ by the Glazer PR machine, but for an inflated price simply unaffordable to the ordinary supporter.

But there is hope, a group of rebel fans have grown into a green and gold army that has grabbed the imagination of the public and united the support.

Backed by a group of city investors known as the Red Knights, the prospect of a fresh takeover, five years on from the Glazer revolution, is a reality.

Now in this blog, I investigate the Glazer ownership, the deep unrest of the club’s fan base and the possibility of United being rescued from oblivion by a knight in shining armour.