United fans blue amid green and gold campaign
Reuters - Friday 12 March 2010, 19:54
MANCHESTER - Manchester United
fans are confused, upset, depressed and angry about the American
owners of the club yet, despite the 'green and gold campaign',
the overwhelming feeling is one of impotency.
The campaign - in the colours of the Premier League club's
forerunners Newton Heath - is certainly eye-catching.
It reached a new level when David Beckham donned a green and
gold scarf as he left the pitch after United beat his visiting
AC Milan team 4-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Whether it will have any influence on the Glazer family, the
Americans who have repeatedly said they have no intention of
selling the English champions, appears highly unlikely.
Other tactics, such as a mass late arrival for matches and
non-renewal of season tickets, are similar pea-shooter efforts
against armour-plated owners who the fans claim have made season
ticket prices so high that the waiting list has shrunk.
The result is that the followers of the best-supported club
in England, and arguably the world, are left without much hope.
A drowning man will clutch at any straw but are the
so-called 'Red Knights' the answer?
CONFUSED FEAR
A loose affiliation of about 40 rich men with an interest in
running United, but with probably as many varying views on how
best to do so, appears a recipe for more confusion.
"If you've come here looking for answers, or expect me to
tell you what to do, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong
place," read a long, sometimes emotional, editorial in the
club's independent fanzine "Red News" this week.
Desperate to escape the Glazers but wary of jumping into bed
with a new set of suited financiers, the 23-year-old magazine's
editorial line was one of confused fear - "Who are these
people, what are their plans, is it a pipe dream?
"What makes us so sure they would create this Utopian United
many Reds seek and not exploit any desperation we have to get
rid of the Glazers just to create an alternative ownership model
that is not ideal, just not as bad?"
The letters page of Red News, local papers and the radio
phone-ins are dominated by the subject of the Glazers, the debt
and what, if anything, the ordinary fan can do.
"If I give up my season ticket, the most important thing in
my life, and nothing changes I'd feel betrayed and devastated,"
wrote one fan.
"I've supported United for 40 years through thick and thin,
why should I punish myself because of something these absent
Americans have done?", wrote another.
UNANIMOUS VIEW
On the streets of Manchester, among United fans at least,
the seemingly unanimous view is that nobody understands how one
of the world's richest clubs can almost overnight become more
than 700 million pounds in debt.
Even if the Glazers decided to sell the club a lot of fans
are not quite sure who or what should replace them.
"The whole thing should never have been allowed to happen,"
said newspaper vendor and 'lifelong fan' Stan Rooney - no
relation to the club's prolific striker Wayne.
"They're killing this club and nobody in the Premier League
or the FA or UEFA cares."
It was not so long ago that United fans were queuing up to
complain about their Plc owners, before the Glazer takeover.
Prior to that former chairman Martin Edwards was being
criticised for the way he ran the club and his blocked attempt
to sell it to Rupert Murdoch's Sky organisation.
For many non-United fans the uproar sounds rather
hollow.
"United have been courting financiers for years," said
Birmingham City fan Brian O'Leary. "They've set themselves up as
the so-called 'world's richest club' and they think they have a
divine right to the biggest slice of TV money.
"But I don't remember their fans showing too much concern
when small clubs up and down the country were going into
administration."