Fans Tied In To United's Faustian Pact By Carl Markham. PA Sport Manchester United fans, generally, do not get much sympathy but the constant bleating about Malcolm Glazer's proposed takeover of the club is starting to grate. If they were to take a moment out from their caterwauling, step back and look at the reality they would see the American tycoon's move was inevitable. Had it not been the owner of American Football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers it would have been someone else. As a public limited company listed on the Stock Exchange, United are openly inviting people to invest their money in them. The problem arises when someone like Glazer comes along and wants a bigger piece of the pie than the club are willing to give them. The American has amassed an almost 30% stake in the Old Trafford gravy train so some have been willing to cash in on his interest and sell their shares. Floating on the Stock Market is a double-edged sword, you see. By putting shares on offer to the wider public United were quite happy to accept the massive additional revenue it brought. However, such availability means the club are powerless to prevent someone with the necessary financial backing making an unwanted approach. Cue Malcolm Glazer. The failed attempt by Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd to get the Department for Trade and Industry to block the American's approach on public interest grounds was laughable. Just because United is a football club it deserves no special privileges and the DTI rightly said so. Let's face it, numerous British companies get bought out and taken over every year by overseas investors and no-one bats an eyelid. The fact United run a profitable business on the back of a multi-million pound merchandising empire means they are bound to be an attractive proposal for investors. Were they in any other business apart from football they would probably have already been bought by a international conglomerate and everyone would be praising the incredible success of a British company. Fans have a right to make their feelings known but if they believe they can stop a business transaction which could generate millions of pounds for the people involved they are misguided. United supporters will point to the aborted efforts of Rupert Murdoch and BSkyB to take over the club in the 1990s but that failed because, on that occasion, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission ruled against it. Targeting club sponsors, as they have promised to do, will give them an outlet to vent their frustrations but that too is unlikely to harm commercial interests in the long run. They will just have to accept that no matter how great their number, as always in football, money talks.
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