By Michael Karjavine

“The club is rotten from top to bottom. It’s no longer a soccer team, but a money-making tool. Bad decisions on specific players, coaching choices and overall strategy. Huge amounts of money are being siphoned out of the club.” – One Manchester fan to a British newspaper.

“If I lived in Manchester, I would go to every protest”  – My friend Ruslan, a devoted Manchester United fan.

MU hierarchy. Photo credit: @UnitedsUpdate on Twitter.

The Glazer family, descendants of American billionaire businessman Malcolm Glazer, bought 100% of the shares of British soccer powerhouse Manchester United between 2003 and 2005 for $790 million. The Glazers already own several businesses in the United States, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Football League franchise, which they purchased in 1995. Decisions about sports teams are made by Joel or Avram Glazer, two of Malcolm’s sons.

The troubles with the owners of one of the most successful soccer clubs in history began as soon as the Glazer family thought about buying the club in 2005. Instead of fully paying out the price tag, they decided to take a loan and place it on the club itself, therefore obligating the club or the next owner to pay out the debt. By doing so, they scared away some of potential buyers, because they would not only have to pay the new price tag, but also this debt.

Ownership funding among major European soccer teams. Image credit: @SwissRamble.

While most owners of top soccer clubs in Europe spend their own money on the club, the Glazers decided to take the money from the club. At the end of every season, they write out dividends for themselves for being thoughtful owners.

The fans were so mad that Glazers bought the club in 2005 that a few previous board members decided to establish a new soccer club named “United of Manchester.” Also, devoted fans began boycotting matches just because they believed that after the Glazers bought the club, it lost its soul. All of the protests soon went away, however, because the results on the field were still tremendous. The club won five Premier League and one Champions League in eight years, due to the work of Sir Alex Ferguson, the coach, and David Gill, the chief executive of the “Red Devils.”

However, there were still fans that wore green and yellow jerseys as a sign of protest, because they symbolized the beginnings of the great club, the heart and soul of MU. Those colors used to be the colors of Newton Heath L&YR F.C.—the previous name of Manchester United before 1902. When Gill and Ferguson retired in 2013, things started to go south.

Rival clubs like Liverpool and Manchester City made it a priority to follow a strategy for success. At the cost of a couple of lost seasons, they managed to restart the project and are now up and running, winning one trophy after another. The new chief executive of Manchester United, Ed Woodward, appointed by the Glazers, did not succeed with player transfers like Angel Di Maria, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, who all failed to provide the quality playing everyone expected from them. He appointed new coaches without a certain style to link them, showing that he is not really an expert in soccer and didn’t have any soccer background. On the other hand, Woodward got a few very successful sponsor agreements, proving he is a great businessman. Due to that, the club was still earning money, even though the results on the pitch were getting worse and worse. In 2019, fan protests were reborn, but still not extreme, because at least the club was not going in the direction of bankruptcy.

The roof leaking at Old Trafford stadium. Photo courtesy of The Sun UK. 

On the night of April 18, 2021, one of the most controversial events in soccer history happened: the announcement of the “Super League.” The anti-Glazer protests then reached their all-time high. Manchester United was declared as one of the founding clubs of this idea, alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, and Arsenal. Fans of the Red Devils thought that the club had betrayed them by even considering such an idea, especially by helping organize the whole league. A few weeks later, in May 2021, fans broke into Manchester’s stadium, Old Trafford, before the game against Liverpool, forcing the game to be rescheduled to another date. The fans started to remember all of the mistakes of the owners, which included not investing any money into the club and only taking money from it, putting the debt on the club, not renovating the stadium (Old Trafford’s ceiling is leaking), and others.

After the mass protests, the Glazers said that they were willing to work with fans to restore the previous glory of the club. Protests resumed, but were not as severe as before. The Glazers appointed a “Football Director,” John Murtough, to help the sporting aspects of the club, which Woodward struggled with. Yet nothing changed, because not all of the players were bought with the agreement of the coach. International superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was acquired in the 2021 summer transfer window without any discussion with the coach, chosen more for the media attention. While the Glazers succeeded at bringing attention to the club, a player like Ronaldo requires the whole team to work for him. The style of coaching of the manager at that time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, did not intend for the team to play for Ronaldo.

The 2021/2022 season turned out to be a complete failure, with Manchester United finishing 6th in the Premier League, with the smallest amount of points in the club’s history in the Premier League. Ruslan, a friend of mine and a committed MU fan, commented on the failures during the transfer window: “While City bought the best forward in the world for €60 million because they started negotiating early in spring, and while Chelsea already negotiated with RB Leipzig to buy [Christopher] Nkunku next summer, Manchester United scouts them but doesn’t know what to do, because they don’t have any soccer experts in charge.”

Before the 2022 summer transfer window, the Glazers lifted fans’ hopes up, as they appointed a long-awaited top coach: Eric Ten Hag. During the transfer window, the Glazers said that they were willing to spend money, and the club had a certain strategy to help the new coach. They tried to buy Frenkie De Jong from Barcelona, but did not want to pay £85 million pounds, as requested by Barça. After a few declined offers, the owners reassured the fans that they had everything under control, and they did not want to overpay. As a result, by the end of the transfer window, they offered the £85 million after Barcelona already used all of their sources and did not need the money. Then, they almost agreed on “panic transfers” that they absolutely didn’t need, like Adrien Rabiot and Marko Arnautovic, because they wanted to show the fans that they could still buy someone, even though Ten Hag did not need those players.

Most fans were relieved that those transfers failed. Then, they significantly overpaid for Carlos Henrique Casemiro, who is now 30 and is not a player with much of a future due to his age. Basically, even though they promised to be better and have a certain strategy, they failed. The protests came back. As Ruslan commented, “I was absolutely raging after this summer transfer window.”

Not so long ago, the richest person in England, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, wanted to buy Manchester United, but the Glazers did not want to sell. The fans started demanding the club to be sold, but the Glazers did not care. Ruslan echoed many fans, saying, “While the club will produce revenue, Glazers won’t sell the club.” Last year, after a horrific 16/10/12 (W/D/L) season, and even though the fans asked them not to, the owners still wrote out dividends for themselves.

Fans have accused the Glazer family ownership of deception and not following through with public statements. This has lead to more protests and the lowest approval rating of any soccer club in the Premier League, 4.04%, according to a survey conducted before the 2021/22 season by The Daily Mail. As owners of the clubs, the Glazers barely attend games. Apparently they did not even know the offside rule, which is one of the most basic rules in soccer.

Ruslan summarized Manchester United fans’ frustrations: “While the Glazers are the owners of Manchester United, the only thing left for fans is to hope for the best and, obviously, go out and protest against them.”

Featured image courtesy of Getty Images.