Most football fans have come across the fight between the Green & Gold movement and the American businessman, Malcolm Glazer. Most (if not all) United fans supports the Green & Gold movement, while say Manchester City fans utter exclamations of joy, when their indebted rivals struggle against their unwanted boss. As I will argue in the following post, perhaps they should not be as joyful and instead join ranks with their rivals as has been suggested in the case with Liverpool.
Sales and fans
One could claim that everything is up for sale in the West. Everything from amusement parks such as Legoland to old and established football clubs. Manchester United is not the only one that lost its independence. As already mentioned Liverpool and Manchester City joins in. The same can be said about the London club Chelsea as well as others. To understand the difference in mood towards the new ownership, let us explore the potential benefits the different clubs have experienced.
The joyful
Chelsea: The extremely wealthy Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich, bought Chelsea in 2003. With his takeover he gave the club financial aid that made it possible to buy players that really made a difference. Since his takeover Chelsea has won the Premier League three times and is currently the holder of the trophy. Before Abramovich Chelsea had never won the former 12 seasons in the Premier League. In other words the average Chelsea fan can feel satisfied about the performance on the pitch. Further Abramovic covers Chelsea with interest free loans according to Soccerlens.com. Further Chelsea can brag about a debt of zero percent Forbes reports.
Manchester City: Manchester City is owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which has used his financial wealth to support the club. According to Andy Hinchcliffe, former City Player, "The level of investment is stratospheric. A lot of people are a bit bewildered at the moment and it might take a couple of days for it to sink in. I hope they stick with Mark Hughes, because on the football side things are moving in the right direction." (Daily Telegraph, Manchester City fans cheer takeover by Abu Dhabi United Group, 2008). The Daily Telegraph reports in the same article that the general secretary of the Manchester City supporters club is excited although more moderate. Among the things that makes him smile, he stresses the deep pockets.
The regretful
Liverpool: Liverpool is like Manchester United owned by Americans. Like the latter they too suffer, although not as grave, from financial distress. According to Forbes the debt of Liverpool is even bigger than that of Manchester United relatively speaking. The success on the pitch is not something to brag about either. Just like City, Liverpool has never won the Premier League. They did win the Champions League though.
Manchester United: This club is still regarded one, if not the most successful club in the world. Forbes values it to around $1.8 billion with a debt fluctuating around 60 %. They have won the Premier League more than any other club in England as is currently vice-champions. Extremely loyalty seems to be a trademark of the club, since the manager, Sir Alex Ferguson has stayed with club in the same position for more than 20 years. Esteemed players like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville have become institutions in the club with more league matches that any other. Until Malcolm Glazer's takeover United seemed like a true story of success. However, Glazer managed to by the club with borrowed money and transfer that debt to the club. As an example United announced that after the Glazer takeover, the annual profit fell with £12.3 million (The Scotsman, Manchester United profits fall by £12.3m, 2006).
A couple of concluding words
Obviously both Chelsea and Manchester City have fans that enjoy status quo, while the same cannot be said about Liverpool and Manchester United. While the former has every reasons to be happy, they might begin to think of the future. Both clubs are financed with petrodollars, and by people that do not have football as their primary business. Imagine that the financial situation of today changes in favour of green technology. If the internal financial situation of both Chelsea and City are not sustainable by itself, the club will collapse. The City fan secretary general stressed stability. The pre-Glazer situation in Manchester United was an example of a club with a stable economy, which by the way was why Glazer in the first place bought the club. In an article in the Guardian in 2010 the paper describes the financial situation of Malcolm Glazer as bad, and that he gets his profits from his sportsteams rather than his normal business activities. Despite the disregard the different fangroups have among eachother, perhaps they should join ranks and fight against business magnates that either simply enjoys a sport so much that they want to buy or use it as a moneybag!
No comments:
Post a Comment