Manchester United co-owner Joel Glazer sent an apology note to supporters this week in a humiliating climbdown over the proposed European Super League.
Just days earlier he had proudly announced United’s entry into the competition, boasting of, ‘a new chapter for European football’.
His open letter came after the Super League collapsed on Tuesday night, 48 hours after it was launched.
Now an inside story from the New York Times on the quick rise and fall of the competition has shed more light on Glazers’ involvement.
He pushed for it
According to the NYT, there was some trepidation from some of the supremos behind the Super League launch, believing this was the wrong time to do it.
The report stated Joel Glazer was one of the leading voices urging the group to go immediately.
It read: “[Andrea] Agnelli simply needed the news out. Glazer, one of Manchester United’s co-chairmen, agreed. He was adamant it was time to press the button.”
This was one of Glazer’s many misjudgements on this whole issue, including to explore it at all.
His determination shouldn’t be surprising. The Mail reported last Sunday that Glazer was set to become the vice-chairman of the Super League.
But rather than being the football revolution he wanted, it sparked a different kind of revolution, a fan rebellion.
A price to pay
Now supporters are planning to ramp up protests against the Glazers.
There was a mini taste of it outside the club training ground on Thursday morning.
A protest is expected to take place outside Old Trafford on Saturday, and then ahead of the Liverpool game the following Sunday.
These should attract more media attention to the fight, and potentially test the Glazers’ nerve.
If the media attention can stay behind supporters, instead of being critical of them, like The Mail‘s report on Thursday’s protests, then there is a chance the pressure begins to prompt the American owners into considering selling up.
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