United revisited Jeremy Warner Independent I spent much of yesterday morning responding to angry e-mails concerning my Outlook item on Manchester United, which argued that directors had breached their fiduciary duties by turning down the Glazer bid on the grounds that there was too much debt leverage involved. If I've failed to reply to all of them it is only because there is only so much abuse you can take in a single day.
In the process I've been introduced to a new word in the English language - ABU, as in "you abu southern prat". I'm told that the word stands for Anyone But United - ie you are so much against us that you'd like anyone to win but United. As an acronym, it seems to take on a meaning far more derogatory and threatening. Perhaps it should qualify for the Oxford English Dictionary. I've no intention, as suggested by several correspondents, of doing a Boris Johnson and coming up to Manchester to apologise. For starters I wouldn't command the police protection afforded to the great Boris and, given the tone of some of the e-mails, would therefore fear for my life. And anyway, I doubt I've offended the whole of Manchester by being rude about United. However, I'm willing to concede that I did perhaps go a step too far in suggesting that the death of Manchester United might actually be quite good news for English football. This is, of course, a ludicrous assertion which only the supporter of a rival club, such as Arsenal, could entertain. The idea that the game might benefit from being a more equal contest, rather than permanently dominated by a few super clubs, is an ignoble thought not worthy of a serious newspaper. So I apologise unreservedly for suggesting that a less predictable result might lead to a more engaging contest and look forward to the day when United has so utterly vanquished its rivals that there is no one left to play. It is equally absurd to suggest that the shareholders should determine the company's fate on grounds of return on investment, owners of the business though they may be, when we all know that the first loyalty of a football club director has to be to the fans and players, not forgetting the preservation of the directors' box and attendant corporate entertainment perks. How naive of me to think otherwise. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Manchester United Should Know Better Jeremy Warner Independent Business October 26th 2004 Sir Roy Gardner, chairman of Manchester United, should know better than to put the supposed interests of the football club and its fans over those of his shareholders. His statement yesterday was an outrageous dereliction of his duty to investors. If he had rejected the Glazer bid on the grounds that it was too low, that would be one thing, but he rejected it because it was too highly leveraged, a fact he thought would damage the long-term interests of the club. That's not for him to decide and, anyway, if the bidder wants to destroy the company he's just bought, that's his business. The death of Manchester United might actually be quite good news for English football. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/GtUolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Please use [EMAIL PROTECTED] for general discussion. To unsubscribe send a blank message (from the email account in question) to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Join as a full member of IMUSA today: http://www.imusa.org/join.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imusa/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
