The Glazers and Manchester United: How to ruin the heritage and football culture of a club?

In the past few days, it’s been a great controversy for Manchester United after the collapse of the European Super League, and the Glazers have been in the limelight again for the wrong reasons after reports of the American owners being one of the driving force behind this breakaway elite league. 

The Glazers and Manchester United supporters have always hated each other, and we can tell you the latest dispute that happened in the past few days, which put Glazer's ownership of the club at the brink with fans protest set to take place outside Old Trafford before their

18th April 2021 was a dark day for many football fans when 12 elite football teams in Europe announced that they would form a European Super League. featuring Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur), along with the three Spanish giants (Atletico de Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid) and Italy (AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus FC. 

This shook the world football as many fans and pundits described this as a robbery and said, death of football 

“founded by the poor and snatched by the rich”. 

So, what was this proposed European Super League? The top 12 teams mentioned above would always be part of the league as they are the founding members; however, the other five teams would have to fight to earn their spot in the competition; otherwise, they will be relegated. 

The Chairman of the European Super League and Real Madrid President, Florentino Perez made a controversial statement; saying “16 to 24-year-old fans are not interested anymore in football and suggested that reducing the minutes in football could be a possible solution”. 

The league faced many backlashes from fans and football pundits. 

This caused a global protest from the fans, most footballers and managers did not entertain this idea of an elite super league based on money power. 

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened by saying, “We are going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this doesn’t go ahead in the way that it’s currently being proposed". 

The European Super League saw a collapse within a day, and many top big teams withdrew from the competitions; this led to the resignation of Andrea Agnelli (Juventus president) and Ed Woodward (Manchester United executive vice-chairman), Barcelona and Real Madrid are yet to take a step back. 

Manchester United saw a massive outrage from fans across the globe. The Glazers were the driving forces behind the breakaway of the league with Chairman Florentino Perez and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli. 

In the past, Manchester United has always come under heavy criticism because of how the glazers have controlled the club. 

Who owns Manchester United? Meet the Glazer Family 

Manchester United are a club that has a massive fan following across the world and this has been achieved over years of effort and perseverance on the pitch. 

When the  Glazers came and turned the club to a cash show since then, England giants have always seen disappointments, debt, and huge revenue, especially after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson from the club in 2013.

The Glazers first took over Manchester United in 2003, and till 2005 they bought the club’s entire ownership. However, the Red Devils fans never liked the Glazer family, often protested against them for their lack of ownership, for putting the club in massive debt. 

Malcolm Glazer and his family won the club's controlling bid of £790m on May 12, 2005. The BBC in 2005 reported that initially, the Glazers had acquired a 2.9% stake in the club in March 2003 and by 28 June 2005, the family-owned 98% of the club's shareholdings and deducted them from the stock exchange. 

On 29 June 2005, 300 Manchester united supporters opposed the club’s new ownership, the protesters were stopped by police this led to indignation and the chairman of shareholders united Sean Bons declared “Glazer family the enemies of Manchester united”. 

However, the Glazers continued to expand its ownership and bought a new sponsor deal signed with American company AIG, which helped Glazer takeover the club. 

The Manchester United fans always feared that the American owners would eventually put the club in massive debt and leave the sinking ship. 

However, the Glazer family ensured that it would not happen and kept Alex Ferguson at Man Utd. He appointed his two sons Kevin and Edward, and his daughter, Darcie, as non-executive directors. 

Malcolm Glazer died in 2014 due to a long illness, following a stroke, his 90% stake was split between the six Glazers children. 

After the father’s demise, Joel and Avram have been in charge of the club. The rest of the pair are now co-chairmen of the club. Kevin, Bryan, Darcie and Edward are holding positions as directors. 

Why do the United Fans hate the Glazers most and why the club is in so much debt?

The thing that Manchester United fans feared the most is that the Glazers would put the club in debt eventually; that happened the club fell in debt for the first time since James Gibson saved them in 1931. 

Most of the money Malcolm Glazer generated was from loans, utilizing a ‘leveraged buyout plan’ instead of spending his own money, this made the fans unhappy. 

The Manchester United supporters tried to stop the Glazers by returning the ownership to club supporters in 2005, which they almost did in 2010 by a group of rich United dubbed as ‘Red Knights’ discussed a takeover bid with the Glazers, however, the deal collapsed as the groups could not meet the Glazer family's valuation of the club at that time.

Are the Glazers ready to sell Manchester United?

According to Forbes, Manchester United is the fourth most valuable club globally, worth £3.04 billion.

The Glazers has always been the enemies of Manchester United supporters since their takeover, and they were also the main reason behind the driving forces of the breakaway league. 

During Manchester united training, around 20 protesters protested against the Glazers family, though Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had to step out to resolve the issue after blocking both entrances to the Carrington headquarters.  

After the European Super League debacle and the resignation of Manchester United Chief executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward which expected by the end of the year, the Glazers have finally decided to sell the club to the right owner; the rumors state that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman is keen to buy Manchester United from the Glazers. 

Though Mohammed bin Salman was earlier linked to taking over Manchester United in 2019, Woodward conveyed the news that the Glazers has no plans to sell the club as he is happy with current owners. 

After the European Super League madness, the Glazers are looking to sell Manchester United, and Mohammed bin Salman could be a potential new owner for the red devils.