[Moscow 333]

Комментарий Red News

No doubt there are a few people today thinking, after the Glazers whistle stop pr tour, 'why not give them a chance, I mean, Fergie seems happy, and they've put Ј790m of their money into the club, are shrewd businessmen, etc, etc'.

Those of us against the Glazer bid aren't still against it because we are stubborn gits unable to refuse any sort of change. This bid is bad, very bad, for United.

We've gone from being a profitable club, to a debt ridden one. And a heavy debt ridden one at that, nearly six times the rate of debt Leeds had (and look at them) and now needing 3 times, shrewd observers say, our average yearly profit just to pay the debts.

It is reported we now need to find a Ј88m surplus a year - just to pay the debts. For a club making around Ј30m a year, we, the fans, can't help but not only be against this, but highly concerned as to where these funds will come from - it'll be us who have to foot it, and the Glazers having put up ticket prices 5 times in 7 years at Tampa have form with that regard. And remember if they DO find the Ј88m - that is only just paying the debts, it's not actually even helped us go into profit for the year.

It's not actually their money that has foot the takeover either, it's the club itself.

Some will say they've just spent nearly Ј800m on buying United - give them a chance.

From the BBC web site:

"More than one-third of Mr Glazer's Ј790m offer for the club is debt secured against United's assets, such as its Old Trafford stadium, while a further Ј275m comes from loans from three US hedge funds."

The hedge funds loans are so high, at such ridiculous levels of interest that they in affect are the new bosses at Old Trafford. And that is baaaaaaaaad news.

David Gill can smile for the cameras all he likes but this is a man who was part of a Board who last October said: "I don't think any sensible person would think we could recommend a proposal that could jeopardise something that has been built up over so many years...the business plan could be detrimental to the success of Manchester United".

Yes, a right change of tune.

And as for the Glazers shrwed business expertise.

Three years ago, Glazer attempted to buy the Swiss football club FC Zurich. He told its president, Sven Hotz “When I take over, nobody has a say apart from me”. Herr Hotz politely declined the offer. (from 99 reasons...)

Glazer goes for the jugular. When he offered to buy the Buccaneers, he promised the Tampa authorities he would go halves on a new stadium with them. After getting control, he backed out of the deal, and gave Tampa two years to build it themselves or he would move the team to a city that would. Tampa caved in, and city taxpayers are still paying a half-cent sales tax to fund the stadium’s construction. Ex-Tampa mayor Bill Poe estimates that this has cost the City some $400 million in all.

Glazer’s first attempt at a takeover was in 1984 when he tried to buy the bankrupt US Conrail system. He offered $7.6bn, though he only actually had $100m of his own.

Marisa Bowe, former editor of the internet magazine Word.com dealt with one of his sons, Avram in 1998 when Zapata bailed out her company. 'He was an idiot, and I'm not the sort of person who uses the word idiot lightly. Avram had this dream of being a big swinging dick of the internet but his ambition was hampered by an almost surreal incompetence.They completely screwed it up. It was almost comic. They didn't know anything about the business they were getting into and they didn't seem to care. He's pathetic. Such a daddy's boy. This is the one thing he had tried to do on his own and he couldn't have done it worse. I really hope Manchester United find someone else.'

We remain firmly against this bid because, like the plc Board did for so long, we believe it is not in the best interests of Manchester United, and with the levels of debt we will see desperate measures enforced to try and claw back money into the club.

United fans have an opportunity to say they will no longer be pawns, used and abused by those with no sense of the traditions and history of our great club who come in and take our money. It is OUR club, not theirs and as such we can support the football club but make the financial side of the club know that our message is we will not settle until United fans have a real say and stake in the running of OUR club.

As such, with the debt, the restrictions that the Glazers find themselves having to pay back these loans, if United fans continue to stand up for what is right and a better long term future of the club by refusing to play ball off the pitch, the boycotts proposed by the Coalition will mean that one day United fans could be in a position to have a real opportunity to have a real say in the running of our club.

It is for that, and many, many other reasons that we stand against this bid and all it stands for. The debt is rising. As we speak. But if United fans rise as one OUR club will be in OUR hands, not a plaything for the rich and (in)famous.