When the story of the bond issue broke in January, Manchester United Supporters Trust membership stood at around a paltry 30,000. That number had almost doubled in the two months following because of the repercussions of the financial details released. Yesterday morning the figure stood at 54,000.
Following a huge push by Manchester United fans to urge friends, relatives and any United fan they know to join MUST – prompted by an appearance on Sky Sports News by Chief Exec Duncan Drasdo – numbers have risen by over 30,000 in the last 24 hours.
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The elusive Red Knights convened in London yesterday to discuss their proposed takeover of Manchester United. Deal broker Keith Harris, chairman of investment bankers Seymour Pierce, and Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs are known to be two of the men involved in the bid, and Duncan Drasdo, Chief Executive of MUST appeared on Sky Sports News this afternoon to speak about the meeting.
While not wanting to give too much away, Drasdo said the Red Knights are definitely interested in moving forward with the proposal, but want a show of faith fro the Manchester United fans before moving forward with plans.
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Patrice Evra has become the first Manchester United player to back the fans protests against the Glazer regime.
The French left back spoke after he Carling Cup final win against Aston Villa, and while he didn’t mention Glazer directly, he hinted that he is aware of the fans concerns regarding the current owners and acknowledges the reasons why they have recently been wearing the green and gold of Newton Heath.
“They are the original colours of Manchester United, and the fans wear them because they love this club,” he told the Blomberg News Agency.
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The Glazer regime has long been a subject of anger for many Manchester United fans. Others were of the ‘wait and see’ persuasion, while some were just plain ignorant of what was going on. What’s clear now though is that there is a growing army of Manchester United fans who have woken up and realized that the Glazer’s are cancerous leeches that are sucking our football club dry.
Gone are the days of quiet discontent. Now we hear anti Glazer songs at every home and away game and thousands fill the stands wearing green and gold. Without wanting to sound overly dramatic, the revolution IS in full flow and it appears it will only get stronger as more and more fans pick up on it.
Responding to criticism of the enormous debt the club is in, Chief Executive David Gill said, “people should be proud of what’s happening at Manchester United”. Have a read of these numbers and then see how proud you feel.
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The anti Glazer feeling was at fever pitch yesterday as Manchester United took on Portsmouth on the 52nd anniversary of the Munich air disaster.
On the pitch, United thrashed the hapless strugglers 5-0, but it was in the stands where the fans did us proud.
For the entire 90 minutes chants of “LOVE UNITED HATE GLAZER” and “WE WANT GLAZER OUT” were sung by dedicated fans waving their green and gold scarves in protest at the spiralling debts the Glazer’s have placed on the club.
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The Glazer family, who own Manchester United, are capitalizing on the recent fans protests by selling retro United shirts in green and gold.
Fans have been protesting against the Glazer’s and the huge debt burden they have placed on the club, by wearing green and gold instead of the traditional red.
The colours represent the original colours of United, then called Newton Heath, and the protest was meant to show the Glazer’s that the fans are United in wanting them out.
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Bookmaker Fred Done has revealed himself to be one of the “Red Knights” aiming to takeover Manchester United.
Fred, a lifelong United fan, is the first of an alleged 50 investors keen to take the football club away from the Glazer family, who have burdened the club with huge debts.
He was approached by fixer Keith Harris.
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Manchester United’s success on the pitch is not encouraging traders to buy the bonds they sold two weeks ago.
They successfully raised £500 million to refinance the serve debt burden on the club. 250 million in pounds and 425 million in dollars.The former are now selling at 93% of their initial value, whereas the latter are selling at 94.5%.
The bonds guarantee a return of a set percentage, added onto the overall amount every year and payable in 2017 when the bond matures, but the uncertainty over the club’s ability to pay back the sums when 2017 comes around has led to traders selling them at a loss.
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David Gill was accused by fans of blatant lies today, after his interview with BBC radio Five Live this morning.
The Manchester United chief Executive was asked what he thought about the ongoing protests at Old Trafford and said he had no problem with them.
“Protests are fine, it is a free society,” he told the interviewer.
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Manchester United have successfully raised £504 million through the sale of bonds, and will use it to pay off most of what they owe to banks.
What they have done is nothing more than rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship.
The debt is still there, it’s just become slightly more manageable in the short term, but when the bonds mature on February 1st 2017 the Glazer’s will owe the £504 Million they’ve gained through bonds, plus annual interest of over £40 million from now until then.
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