Manchester United owner's debts hit £1.1bn, page 1

Manchester United owner's debts hit £1.1bn

By John Sweeney and Andrew Head BBC Panorama

Manchester United's owners are £1.1bn in debt - £400m more than previously known - after borrowing extensively against their shopping mall business.

BBC Panorama has found evidence that the Glazer family's debt levels may threaten their hold on the club.

A spokesman for the American family has said it holds more than £2bn in assets.

But the extent of the debt owed by the Glazers is likely to fuel a continuing revolt by some supporters, who oppose their ownership of the club.

Manchester United owner's debts hit £1.1bn

This kind of follows on from the 'American flag burned...in England' thread about the Liverpool fans, but doesn't really follow the American patriotism angle. I put this here as, not being a story happening in America or to America, it will inevitably be dismissed as a 'regional' story anyway.

There's various issues involved in this, aside from the football aspect, something that means very little to me, admittedly. Firstly, it's management not being particularly honest over the truth of their business - which is typical ATS fodder. £1.1bn is a fair old number and there's been a lot of hoodwinking going on regarding how 'fit for purpose' the Glazers are.

Living only 5 miles outside of Manchester, I'm familiar with the demonstrations that have been on-going since the Glazers bought the club. I couldn't possibly count the amount of 'love football, hate Glazer' stickers, badges, banners and t-shirts I've seen over the years and nor could I imagine that the familiar 'devil' team colours would be replaced so easily by so many for the green and gold that is so ubiquitous now. For people outside the area it's really hard to understand how much the Glazers are loathed.

There's a bigger issue though, one about how often large businesses (which includes football clubs) are taken over by foreign owners and suffer from it. Often the detachment of foreign owners means they really don't 'get' the thing they're buying. It's been said many times that Americans just don't 'get' football and that, to the Glazers, they really don't understand what the club actually means to people and that all they see are tickets (increased by a third this last year) and all they hear are cash registers rather than the fans.

Another recent example is the Kraft take over of Cadburys, something that's beginning to look like them buying Cadburys to merely take Cadburys off the market whilst they push more of their own brands. The role the brand plays in England's psyche, not to mention the importance it played to the local communities in the Midlands, is completely lost on Kraft.

Outside a couple of football examples, I'm trying to recall an instance where a foreign buyer has bought out a British firm and it's actually been to the benefit of all concerned. Any suggestions?

I heard this first thing whern i woke up, as if the $700million wasn't bad enough to have it jump by so much is disgusting.
The Glazers need to go as soon as possible, they can't keep using the clubs money to finance their own debts. They shouldn't even be allowed to do it. This news is not going to go down well at all and you are going to see many more protests and much more anger, and rightly so.

I'm tempted to post a heap of anti Glazer vids but i won't, so i will leave you with this link if you want to read more about the issue or even want to sign up.
action.joinmust.org...

I would expect a fresh statement from MUST on this news as it sinks in throughout the day.

reply to post by expatwhite

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I think you may find that Beckford has shown the typical footballer's loyalty and has signed for Everton!

You ain't going to be shouting his name next season.

Football fans throughout the UK should unite in a stance against the likes of The Glasers and Gillet & Hicks etc who are bleeding these clubs dry and threatening their very existence.

reply to post by Freeborn

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True but theres nothing better than a bit of Banter

Got that ENGLAND feeling at the minute

Prediction:

England 3-0 USA
Lampard 1
Rooney 2

reply to post by Lucifer84

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Leeds got too big for their boots and are where they belong

Leeds back in top flight? Now thats a Conspiracy theory

Leeds are out of the red and on their way up and our debt was atleast half of yours. You say we got to big for our boots? Possibly, but you say it like scum have not fufilled their shoes.
This is how it will go.

Club cant pay wages anymore, forced to sell players.
You sell all your best players, but still the debt is huge and the only way to crawl out of the debt is to continue to play over a number of seasons and WIN things.
Your club will no doubt go through incredibly poor managment, with people coming and going like its a revolving door. From that, your players will lack stability and disapline because they know they dont have to give 100% due to the fact the manager will be replaced at somepoint.
Inevitably you WILL be relegated, to which all the other clubs will CONSPIRE to keep you in that division because their ticket sales hit the roof (Fact)

As for the fans, many of them are only glory supporters so its likely your 60k capacity isnt going to be needed when you only end up selling 3 seats per game.
But heres a big difference between The mighty whites and the Scum? When we play eachother, people will always root for leeds.
1 nil in your cup final.

Look what happened to nottingham forest. Even bradford are in the 3 tier now. There is no way on earth Scum will crawl out of that debt. Kiss your club goodbye.

reply to post by Lucifer84

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I know exactly what you mean.
Couldn't give a crap about Man Utd.
Come on ENGLAND!
England 5 U.S.A 0...

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