The Anti-Glazier Thread

[Madferret]

The title speaks for itself. Feel free to tack up your feelings about Glaziers takeover of Man U.

Glory Glory or Sorry Sorry?

Heinze reveals Glazer uncertainty

Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze has admitted he has been left feeling uncertain by Malcolm Glazer's ?790m takeover of the club. "The truth is I still don't know what the new owner's intentions are," Heinze was quoted as telling the Sun. "I need to wait to see and to get an idea about the route the club is going.

"The players certainly haven't felt isolated from the demonstrations. They make sense because the fans feel a special affection for United." Many of United's fans, including small shareholders, have been vehemently opposed to the takeover on the grounds that the deal is based too heavily on loans and will saddle the club in debt, resulting in higher ticket prices.

Heinze added: "I'd like to think that if Glazer's willing to buy United, it's because he has the best intentions and wants the place to grow even bigger than it already is."

Brothers united

Glazer sons join board. Malcolm Glazer has taken an even stronger hold on Manchester United following the appointment of three of his sons - Joel, Bryan and Avram - to the club's board.

Glazer owns more than 75% of United and now his family occupy 50% of the board. Nepotism has worked well at the "old man's" other sporting venture - the NFL franchise Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Bruce Allen, general manager of the 2003 Super Bowl winners, claimed the Glazer family had been "fantastic". But Shareholders United - the vociferous anti-Glazer group at Old Trafford - describe the new board members as "three stooges". BBC Sport profiles the triumvirate of new faces behind the scenes at Manchester United.

JOEL GLAZER

A Manchester United statement described Glazer's fourth eldest son as having "extensive sports management experience" and he will be the man most visibly associated with the club.

The 38-year-old is a self-confessed "soccer nut", having developed a passion for the game while sharing a flat with a Tottenham fan, and is expected to take over Roy Gardner's mantle as chairman.

He will split his time between England and the USA but, while he is reported to have spoken to Sir Alex Ferguson on the telephone, it is as yet uncertain as to how much time he will spend in Manchester.

In 1995 he was made executive vice-president of the Buccaneers, a role he continues to carry out. And away from sporting circles he is vice-president of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for the family's business interests.

In partnership with his reclusive 76-year-old father, Joel will have the final say on all matters Manchester United.

BRYAN GLAZER

The 40-year-old is the hands-on boss of his father's sporting club on the other side of the pond - the Buccaneers - having been named executive vice-president in 1995.

In the intervening decade the Buccs may have won only one Super Bowl, but Bryan has played a crucial role in helping turnaround a moribund outfit off the pitch. He was a key player in the design, development and construction of the Buccs' new stadium and helped in redesigning the franchise badge.

And he launched 'Pewter Partners' - an amalgam of team sponsors - which increased advertising revenue from blue-chip companies by giving them huge advertising opportunities. A marketing magician, he will aim to eke every last penny out of the United brand around the world.

He has also worked as a vice-president of First Allied Corporation.

AVRAM GLAZER

Like Joel, the club statement credited Avram as having "extensive sports management experience". The 44-year-old, the eldest of Glazer's six children, was the mastermind of his father's ?790m takeover of Manchester United.

But he has an extensive CV away from sport.

He has worked as a vice-president of First Allied Corporation and in 1995 became president and chief executive officer of Zapata Corporation - a holding company co-founded by former US President George Bush Snr, in which the family have a 51.3% stake.

It has two operating companies, Omega Protein Corporation and Safety Components International Inc., and he is also chairman of the board of directors of Omega Protein Corporation and a director of Safety Components International Inc.

On the minus side, the son who looks most like his father made huge losses on the failed zap.com venture.

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/mrk_images/manchesterutd/mancheter_united_pic_left.jpg

[a4l]

I feel truly sorry for Man Utd fans. The team is no longer going to be traded on the market, the ticket prices are going up by 54% over the next few years and they are American owned. American's have a different style than the British or Irish do.

[a4l]

It looks like the bass turd is going for it all. The FA really has to tighten the rules of ownership for EPL clubs or there will be very few British owned teams.

BBC NEWS
Glazer extends Man Utd deadline

US tycoon Malcolm Glazer has announced that he now owns 97.3% of shares in Manchester United, but is still short of gaining complete control.

Mr Glazer has also extended the deadline for shareholders to sell remaining shares to him for ?3 each.

He had said he would extend his offer if he did not get 97.6% of shares - the point at which he can forcibly buy the remaining stock - by Monday, 13 June.

Shareholders now have until 1500 BST on 27 June to decide whether to sell.

In London on Tuesday morning Manchester United shares were being traded at 309 pence. They have since fallen to 298 pence, the same price as at Monday's close.

Mr Glazer plans to eventually delist the club's shares from the London Stock Market.

Fighting on

Most of the remaining shares are believed to be in the hands of loyal Manchester United fans who have promised to fight the US tycoon to the end.

The Glazers need to get their hands on a total of 258,110,791 shares to force remaining shareholders to sell to them, and are currently short by 204,504 shares.

I would not be surprised if a number of other club shares are eventually delisted. To be honest most football shares have done pretty badly
Harry Philp, analyst

Pressure group Shareholders United (SU) has been threatening to "make life difficult" for the Glazers.

"It is a very sad day for Manchester United supporters," SU's Sean Bones told BBC News on Tuesday.

"We are going to continue to work as hard as we can to accelerate the return of ownership from the Glazers."

Supporters are worried at the amount of borrowing involved in the deal.

Malcolm Glazer plans to increase Man United's revenues by lifting ticket prices by more than 50% over four years, fuelling further outrage from fans.

He has pledged to generate more cash from sponsorship deals and to cap player transfer spending at ?25m a year.

Majority shareholder

The Glazers' first offer to buy out the remaining minority shareholders closed at 1500 BST on Monday.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Mr Glazer said his bid vehicle Red Football now owned 257,906,287 of Man United's shares.

Red Football said shareholders who wish to accept the offer should return shares "as soon as possible and, in any event, by no later than 1500 on 27 June".

The US billionaire, who owns NFL franchise Tampa Bay Buccaneers, became majority shareholder of the club on 16 May in a ?790m takeover.

Red Football hopes to take the club off the stock market by 22 June, after 14 years of the club being listed in London.
Story from BBC NEWS:

[Madferret]

The killer is it's all borrowed money. He's buying the fans and shareholders stake in the team, taking it off the stock exchange so he can suck all the $$ up and pay the debt entirely. It totally killed one of the greatest sporting traditions between a domesticly owned club and has free will to tank it all for the might $$ from across the Atlantic. Of course they're pissed...

:curse:

[Amoroq]

Gillette announced on Wednesday that it has designed a 4.5-carat diamond-encrusted M3Power razor as a Father's Day gift for soccer superstar David Beckham. Not to be outdone, Manchester United fans have bought a straight razor for new owner Malcolm Glazer and have helpfully offered to demonstrate its use.

[Madferret]

Fans United, part two

The fight against Manchester United's new owner continues - and a new soccer team is born. I couldn't resist this.

Last week's column highlighted organized fan opposition to the heavy-handed takeover of Manchester United by Tampa Bay Buccaneers' owner Malcolm Glazer. It also explained why the fans have about as much chance of unseating the American trailer-park tycoon as you or I have of single-handedly winning the FA Cup.

But there's been a new development over 'Ome, and it's the kind of wonderfully loopy, odd and optimistic story that never, ever happens in North American sport. The fans - some of them - are starting their own team.

A big welcome, if you will, to FC United of Manchester, newest members of the North West Counties League, Division Two.What the heck am I talking about? Well, here's the deal:

English soccer, like soccer leagues around the world - and totally unlike professional sports on this continent - is a pyramid. There's no minor-league system where smaller clubs are indentured servants of the big boys. All the smaller clubs are free to buy and sell their own players, and set their own strategies for success.

And at the end of the season, the best of the good teams move up a level, and the worst of the bad move down. Theoretically, you, me and a nine-piece rhumba band could start a team, and enter a league. If we got promoted often enough, we could eventually find ourselves playing in the English Premier League.

At the most primal level, that is what FC United is all about. And this, of course, is a wild and technicoloured dream. The league they are playing in represents the tenth division of English soccer. It would take a full decade of championships - and the construction of a new 40,000-seat stadium - before FC United of Manchester could come to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United as equals.

The fans have about the same chance of achieving that as they do of growing the world's mightiest oak tree by lobbing an acorn into a parking lot full of squirrels.

So, obviously, something else is going on here.

Over and over again, as the Malcolm Glazer dust storm engulfed, and ultimately swallowed Manchester United, significant numbers of fans have bemoaned the loss of "our club." Now, with the main battle lost, they are putting their hopes - and money - where their mouths are.

"FC United will exist for disenfranchised Manchester United supporters as long as there are disenfranchised Manchester United supporters in existence," a club rep with the wonderful name Vasco Wackrill writes on the new team's official website.

And that's the real point. Hey, this just happened down in south London a couple of seasons ago. Disgruntled, disenfranchised Wimbledon fans, horrified that their team was being uprooted and moved to the leafy, monied northern suburb of Milton Keynes, pooled their passion and resources and started a new team.

AFC Wimbledon ran away with the championship of its league last season, and is now a seventh-division side. They have every intention of moving up three more levels, and qualifying for the Football League proper (or whatever that league will be called a few years from now).

This is somewhat of a tradition in Wimbledon. Their old team, after all, went from non-league nobodies to top-level contenders and FA Cup champions in a giddy, ecstatic glory run in the eighties. The tragedy, however, was that their fan base didn't grow along with the team. Money ran out, and the team ultimately left town.

AFC Wimbledon still has a huge mountain to climb. But getting back into top four divisions is a much more attainable goal than overcoming Manchester United.

And far from all United fans are united behind this new and tiny club. Strong opposing fan sentiment is that Malcolm Glazer won't be around in a hundred years, but Manchester United will. That school of supporting says you stand behind your team no matter what. The Old Trafford boardroom may have been comprehensively hijacked, but the team is not about to relocate to Milton Keynes.

For all their good and noble intentions, I'm sure even the hardiest supporters of FC United will find it hard to stay with the new boys on a day when Arsenal is visiting Old Trafford, while the smaller club is on the road against Castleton Gabriels, Flixton or Daisy Hill.

(Memo to self: Must add Daisy Hill soccer jersey to personal collection next Christmas.)

One of the strongest bonds known to humanity is that between a soccer fan and his team. There are plenty of disgruntled sports fans in North America, too. Just ask a Winnipeg Jets fan if his heart is really, truly in the Manitoba Moose. Heck, I myself used to go to 40 Toronto Blue Jays baseball games a year until the team and I went in different philosophical directions in 1990.

But the Moose can't qualify for the NHL, and I can't start up a new Toronto baseball team that might make it to the majors one day.

A soccer fan scorned, however, is a very different animal. They can start over from scratch. AFC Wimbledon actually has a chance, even if FC United of Manchester will never, ever hit the heights.

At a deeper level, this entire story speaks to the intriguing possibilities of fan empowerment. I'm not saying a fan union is possible, practical, or even a good idea. But there is great power in unity, and if alienated Manchester United fans want to take their vengeance against Malcolm Glazer with a new team built in their own image, that is a good and worthy thing for them to do.

Imagine what it would mean for all of us - everywhere - if they actually pulled it off.

Onward!
Ben Knight writes about soccer and lacrosse regularly on Sportsnet.ca.

Why didn't we think of starting a new league during the NHL lockout guys? Wait a minute, nevermind...

[Madferret]

Police called in for Glazer visit

Joel, Avi and Bryan Glazer had to leave Old Trafford in police vans after fans angry at their ?790m takeover protested outside the ground on Wednesday.
The Glazer brothers, sons of new owner Malcolm, were making their first visit to the club since taking it over.

Echoes of 'die Glazer die' rumbled around the stadium as around 300 supporters vented their frustration. Police and fans stood face to face in opposition as the Glazers made their exit in an uncomfortable stand-off.

Joel Glazer, who is expected to be confirmed as chairman of the club, is believed to have spent part of his evening recording an interview for the club's television station, MUTV. The interview will be broadcast on Friday evening.

Shareholders United, who oppose the takeover of the Premiership club, insisted Wednesday's protests showed there was still a lot of ill-feeling towards the Glazer family.

"The fact the club have erected two eight-foot high steel gates to protect the Glazers just shows how much hostility there is towards them," said Shareholders United vice-chairman Sean Bones.

"The number of supporters who have turned out here is very heartening. It proves that Manchester United supporters will not let go until we own the club."

Why not step back Malcolm, it's not too late?

[a4l]

Why not step back Malcolm, it's not too late?

I couldn't agree more. Surely he must know how hated he is right now. Even Arsenal fans are against him.

[Madferret]

David Gill says Glazer's debts won't force Man U to sell Rooney

MANCHESTER, England (AP) - Manchester United will not sell England striker Wayne Rooney despite acquiring debts of 500 million pounds ($1.01 billion Cdn) since the takeover by Malcolm Glazer, chief executive David Gill said Sunday.

Most of the 790 million pounds ($1.7 billion Cdn) that Glazer - owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers - used in the buyout was borrowed money and Reds fans fear that the club may need to sell its best players to pay off the debt.

"Wayne Rooney will definitely not be sold," Gill told BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday. "We fought long and hard to get Wayne last summer and we are delighted with the purchase."

Glazer put his three sons - Joel, Avi and Bryan - on the board of directors a month ago. He has since bought out all but two per cent of the shareholding, taking the club off the stock market and turning it back into a privately owned company.

Gill says that means there is less pressure to sell players.

"There is more pressure on a publicly quoted company than there is on a private one in situations like these," he said. "The Glazer family have experience in sports ownership. They realize success on the pitch drives what happens off it."

Rooney, 19, was bought from Everton a year ago for 30 million pounds ($66 million Cdn) and is seen as a key figure in United's bid to regain the league title. It last won the Premier League in 2003, and has since finished third behind 2004 winner Arsenal and last season's champion, Chelsea.

I wonder what's Fergie's allowance is for summer signings? Season starts next month and they still need anothrr striker to repace Saha for depth purposes.

[a4l]

We hate you Glazers oh yes we do
We hate you Glazers oh yes we do
When you are near us we're blue
Oh Glazers we hate you.