Manchester, Jan 31 (IANS): FC58, the largest Manchester United independent fan coalition, has called for Man Utd majority shareholders the Glazers family to be removed from the club.
According to reports, the Glazer family had racked up close to 650 million pounds in debt at the club before the arrival of the INEOS Group, who bought a 25 per cent stake in the club alongside the control of the football operations.
Manchester United fans have been very vocal in recent times against the outrageous price hikes and price cuts that the club is making in hopes of complying with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
“In our opinion, the club is trying to price out the current match-going fans to replace them with tourists and day trippers. Legacy fans (as the club like to call us) do not spend enough money!
“Cutting adrift our club from the community, its working-class roots, and generational fans, represents the ringing of the death knell for fan culture.
“The simple answer to all this is to remove the Glazers and their debt mountain. Revenue will increase once this happens. But it looks like the new investors are ignoring the millions paid in interest on the Glazer’s bad debt per year,” FC58 were quoted saying by the Daily Mail.
Jim Ratcliffe, whose INEOS group owns a minority stake in the club and controls football operations, was one of the people behind the decision to increase the price of tickets to 66 pounds till the end of the current season, a decision that is said to have been taken in attempts to raise revenue to comply with financial rules after the club admitted they were at risk of breaching PSR unless they reverse their repeated financial losses.
Chants comparing Ratcliffe to long-time co-owners, The Glazers, rang out at Craven Cottage on Sunday night as United defeated Fulham 1-0. Videos of The Red Devils’ faithful hounding Ratcliffe whilst he was leaving the stadium in the car also surfaced, which shows growing discontent amongst one of the largest fan bases in the country.