Sir, Your article is so wide off the mark one has to wonder whether the author undertook any research prior to writing it or just did a quick copy and paste job from articles found on the web. You state that United fans do not want the club in foreign hands and attempt to show Manchester united fans as xenophobes, very patriotic Englishmen. Nothing could be further from the truth. Besides the fact that the majority of united fans harbour a strong resentment against the national English side, consistently singing "Argentina" at opposition fans, we really couldn't care less what passport the stalker holds. Having had the privilege of living and experiencing both cultures, I can state that English football is very different to America sports, much more passionate and as a famous saying goes, "to those who understand no explanation is necessary, to those that don't, no explanation is possible." The simple truth is that we care for the long term future of our club whereas Malcolm Glazer is only interested in maximizing short term profits. Manchester United are and have been for a long time, an extremely profitable club, successful on the pitch and off it. Malcolm Glazer is not a billionaire fan who in his twilight days wants to leave his fortune to help better the club, he is a dangerous predator who want to buy our club using an extremely risky amount of leverage which could potentially bankrupt the club should the football world go into a down cycle. While he is welcome to go to Vegas if he likes a gamble, we would prefer it if he leaves us alone. Just like you would not be happy if someone took your life savings and went to Vegas with them, we don't want him to play with our livelihood either. We are very proud of our world wide appeal. We are very proud that we can travel the globe and find die hard fans wherever we end up. Our manager is Scottish, our goalkeeper American, our striker Dutch, our messiah French. We don't care what passport the CEO has, we just want him to have Manchester United's interests at heart and not just his own. Jacques Stambouli http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050307/biztech/7manchester.htm Playing for keeps By Thomas Grose U.S. News & World Report February 27th 2005
What the New York Yankees are to baseball, Manchester United is to the much more global sport of soccer: arguably the most famous team in existence. Like the Bronx Bombers, Man U has a fabled history teeming with success, agony, and colorful superstars. The result? International fame and fans, and a merchandising prowess that even a less-than-perfect year on the pitch can't diminish. As such, the "Red Devils" --a nickname derived from the color of its home-field uniform--are a source of Mancunian pride as well as a major attraction for this gritty northern city. (Just try to get a hotel room anywhere near here on a game day.) Not surprisingly, its fans are renowned for their intensity--which is saying something in a football-mad country where the term "rabid supporter" is redundant. Manchester United, which traces its lineage back to 1878, is also something of a rarity in professional football: profitable. A publicly traded company since 1991, it had pretax profits of $53.5 million last year on revenues of $309 million. And it's debt free. Its glam image was in recent years burnished by its longtime star midfielder David Beckham, the Michael Jordan of international football, who ultimately left the club for Real Madrid in 2003. But now Man U's success has attracted a fan it wishes would just go away: Malcolm Glazer, the American billionaire owner of the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who's considering a $1.53 billion ($5.75 a share) takeover bid. Glazer--who has a 28.8 percent stake in the team--took a run at Man U last fall but was rebuffed by the board because his bid was heavily leveraged. He has come back with an offer that contains just $573 million in debt. But hold on. The prospect of Glazer's owning their beloved team has Man U fans more rabid than usual. To them, the team is an English icon with a worldwide reputation for success, glamour, and style--not unlike the Beatles or Rolls-Royce automobiles. And they don't want it in foreign hands. It's bad enough that league-leading Chelsea is owned by a Russian oil tycoon. But Man U has a legendary history, including its share of tragedy. In 1958, the team plane crashed at the Munich airport in West Germany, with eight of the players aboard losing their lives. It took then manager Matt Busby a decade to rebuild the team into a European powerhouse. "It's more than a football club; it's an institution," wails supporter Mark Leary. "We don't want him [Glazer] here." Adds fan John Dillon, "He's a businessman. We don't want a businessman; we want a sportsman." Attempts to reach Glazer were not successful. Supporters fear that the American Glazer doesn't understand the "beautiful game" and would jack up Man U's ticket prices to help repay the banks who would partly finance the deal. Banks associated with Glazer have been deluged with angry E-mails from fans, and the billionaire and his family have received death threats. Oliver Houston, spokesman for Shareholders United, a fan-based group that owns about 5 percent of the shares and leads the opposition to Glazer, says it doesn't condone violence. Nevertheless, when around 10,000 boisterous supporters marched on a frosty night last week to protest outside Old Trafford stadium, it wasn't just the weather that put a chill in the air. One chant went: "How we kill him, I don't know / Cut him up from head to toe / All I know is Malcolm Glazer's going to die." One of the banners held aloft by protesters read, "No Customers, No Profits." That was an allusion to plans to boycott the team and its merchandise, should Glazer win. That could be a hollow threat, though. Fans are unlikely to stop supporting Man U, no matter who owns it, says analyst David Gorman of British brokerage W. H. Ireland. Fate. Gorman's betting that Glazer won't succeed in taking the team over but that someone will. Two wealthy Irish businessmen, John Magnier and J. P. McManus, also own 28.8 percent of the club. "I suspect they think they can get more than 3 pounds [$5.75] a share," says Gorman. "They also want a clean exit." While a Glazer deal wouldn't be neat and tidy, another suitor could look good by comparison. The realities of the marketplace have certainly dawned on Steve Moorhouse, a fan who bemoans: "I think it's inevitable that Glazer or someone like him will buy Manchester United." Alas, United fans can hardly take solace in the fate of other British cultural institutions. Michael Jackson and Sony jointly own most of the Beatles' back catalog. And Rolls-Royce? It belongs to German automaker BMW. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Help save the life of a child. 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