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To Be Owned Is To Owe: A Look At The Glazers

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Love them or hate them, they are #136 on the US Forbes rich list, that right it’s the Glazer family.

Head of the family is Malcolm glazer a Jewish American who bought the Tampa bay buccaneers for a cool $192m an NFL record!

My first question when he took full control and plummeted united into £800m debt was why does an American want to buy our football club… yes that was football club and not soccer team, glad I cleared that up first of all.  

What does he know about our club let alone football! If you gave me that sort of money the last thing I would buy would be a NFL team, why because I know nothing about American football.

When he first took over at united this huge debt worried me and many other united fans as we were all couldn’t work out how on earth can he pay the debt back as the interest alone is £60m a year.

With the two sports teams the Glazer owns, he has $1.6 billion hanging over his head. Ok he did pay off around £200m last year, but since 2005 until now the ticket prices have risen at old Trafford by 42%. That seems to be hitting the long, hardcore and loyal fans the most who have to pay to see the team they love more than ever which in terms of the current economic climate is far from an easy thing to do year upon year.

So most of the fans unsurprisingly started to turn on the Glazers by wearing the green and gols scarves, so synonymous with our club’s time as Newton Heath. I admit I do have one and also my red, white, and black scarf as most fans do too.

 First of all I don’t support the owners and I want them out that’s why I wear gold and green but as far as the team goes I’ll always follow them so I’ll always have my red scarf.

I don’t like the thought of the players thinking we are not behind them – even though they know what we are protesting and that we’re not having a go at them. The fans are the twelve man , not the owners isn’t that right Delia?

But at the end of the day they’re the owners and if I’m honest if you buy a club as big as Manchester United and with such success you would not want to sell it off for quick cash return!

I have come to the conclusion over the last few years that it could be a lot worse as we could be owned by a Russian Oil Tycoon who likes to dictate the running of a particular London Club, its managers, and its team. 

A least the Glazers are more subtle in their approach of Club ownership, as we still have our legendary manager in Sir Alex that’s right the same manager for 25 years who has a knighthood, and not to mention an endless list of silverware to his name!  

We still have the crop of young English talent, and seem to continue to draw young talent from all over the world, and more importantly these players still love to play for this club, and thrive on winning.

So really are the Glazers that bad? In every sport, there are teams with Huge debt, and that is just the way it is these days, even the Banks we trust are in debt!!  

Maybe there are other areas in football in particular that need looking into like the huge, demanding wages for so called sports stars; that’s certainly something which needs addressing and every fan up and down the country whomever they support would agree with me on that.

But one thing is for sure there is always two sides to every story, but for me there is only one side and that’s Manchester United – that will never change!

By Paul Fox – @foxythered7