Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Fans detail united front vs. Glazer

Fans of the British soccer team think they can wrest control of their beloved squad in three years by sabotaging his business plan.

By LOUIS HAU
Published June 17, 2005

The deep-seated passion of Manchester United fans has helped build the team into a worldwide commercial juggernaut.

Unfortunately for new owner Malcolm Glazer, much of that passion has been redirected squarely against him.

Barely a month after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner sealed a controlling stake in Man U, some diehard fans of the English soccer team are already plotting his exit.

On Thursday, the leaders of prominent Man U fan group Shareholders United held a news conference in London where they outlined a strategy to wrest control of the team back from Glazer within three years by boycotting the team's major corporate sponsors, raising money to buy back the team and contributing to the collapse of the Bucs owner's debt-laden business plan.

Meanwhile, some fans are trying to establish a new Manchester soccer team, arguing that Glazer's takeover was the last straw in what they saw as the gradual distancing of Man U from its core base of working-class fans.

In a statement detailing its plans, Shareholders United said it is part of a coalition of fans "who are all united behind the campaign to take the ownership of Manchester United out of the hands of one man and for the supporters to have a significant stake in what is still our club."

It's an effort that strikes some observers as quixotic, especially after record season-ticket sales for the 2005-06 season, spurred by more available seats at the team's stadium, Old Trafford.

"They're dreaming," said Steven Cohen, a British native who co-hosts World Soccer Daily on Sirius Satellite Radio and Fox Football Friday on Fox Soccer Channel. "It's all very nice to support your team, but this is a joke. This is the real world. This is a business."

Shareholders United said it plans to establish a professionally managed "Phoenix Fund" that will "buy back shares in United once Glazer has departed."

The group expects to grow the fund via fan contributions, fundraising events, sponsorship deals and the sale of "alternative" team merchandise.

In an analysis released Thursday, the group argued that Glazer's $1.4-billion takeover of the team is burdened with too much debt, crippling interest payments and overly aggressive revenue projections that don't account for the potential effect of fan-led boycotts.

As a result, Shareholders United said it was confident Glazer's business plan will fail within three years, after which the group expects he would be forced to take all or part of the team public again or sell it.

"That is why we call on all fans, from all over the world, to be prepared for that day, when supporters stand ready with a war chest to reclaim our club - or a significant ownership stake in it," the group said.

"It seems to us that the risks of failure of Glazer's model and his business plan far outweigh the prospects of success," the group said.

Other fans are focusing their energies on establishing a new soccer team in Manchester. On Tuesday, a steering group composed of fan association leaders said it has received financial pledges from more than 2,600 people for a team that will be christened "Football Club United of Manchester."

The group said it would meet this weekend with officials from Moore & Co. Solicitors North West Counties Football League to have FC United admitted in the coming soccer season.

Opposition to Glazer's takeover of Man U is only part of the motivation behind the founding of FC United, said steering group member Jules Spencer, a former chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association.

Rising ticket prices and the commercialization of the Man U brand has distanced the team from its fans, Spencer said.

"This constant global expansion of the brand is all well and good to a certain extent, as long as it's invested back in the team and not to the detriment of Manchester's hardcore supporters," he said.

How large a fan base FC United would attract isn't clear. The city of Manchester has two prominent soccer teams - Man U and the Manchester City Football Club, both of which compete in the English Football Association's prestigious Premier League. FC United would start many rungs below that level.

Still, Spencer said he is confident efforts to field a team will succeed. He said transferring his allegiances away from Man U wasn't a decision he made lightly.

"It was heart-wrenching to make that ultimate sacrifice but it's something that is a point of principle that I and many others felt we needed to make," he said.

Louis Hau can be reached at hau@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404.

[Last modified June 17, 2005, 00:34:18]