Manchester United fans protested outside the AON Training Complex this week and more demonstrations are planned for this afternoon.
The Super League fiasco has reignited the anger towards the Glazer family who own the club.
It’s been common knowledge since their arrival that they have no regard for the club but given they’re so distant and hard to remove, the vitriol towards them had simmered in recent years.
That’s no longer the case and here’s why United fans are protesting.
The Athletic reported in May 2020 that The Glazers’ ownership has cost the club £1.5 billion in interest, debt and other outgoings.
If that wasn’t bad enough, during that same period, they’ve taken around £200 million from the club.
They’re treating the club as a cash cow, taking money out of the profits while the interest repayments on the debt they forced onto the club during the purchase growing all the time.
They set the tone for what was to come as soon as they bought the club in June 2015.
The total amount they loaned to buy the club was was £660 million, on which interest payments came to £62 million a year.
The takeover meant United were in debt for the first time since 1931.
By January 2010, the debt had hit £716 million. That sparked the most vociferous anti-Glazer protests seen before or since at United.
They came to a head in March that year when AC Milan were dispatched 4-0 at Old Trafford.
United legend David Beckham picked up and wore a green and gold scarf – which has been worn by many fans to show their opposition for the Glazers.
The protests and a proposed takeover by the Red Knights consortium came to nothing and the unrest against the ownership has never been as loud or angry since.
But the Super League has served as a reminder that the supporters cannot sit on their hands for as long as the club is owned by greedy, distant parasites.
The sheer scale of the attention the Super League failure received and the fact that other clubs are protesting against their owners too should give this new wave of anti-Glazer demonstrations fresh momentum.
Their support for the plan has once again laid bare what is obvious to anyone who takes a look at the finances since they’ve been at the club – they’re only concerned with lining their own pockets.
They’d have been prepared to commit United to essentially playing exhibition matches in a plastic competition for the sake of boosting their guaranteed annual income, disconnecting it from the need to actually construct a successful team on the pitch to earn it.
That’s why Manchester United fans are protesting against the Glazers once again.
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