Bastard! The end of football as we know it?

[RJWGoBulls]

Glazer controls Man Utd

ESPN Soccernet.com News Services

LONDON -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer took control of Manchester United on Monday by increasing his stake in the world's richest soccer club to more than 75 percent.

Man United fans protest against Malcolm Glazer's takeover bid.(burn an effigy of the man) (NealSimpson/Empics)

Glazer bought more shares to take his ownership level to 75.70 percent by the end of Monday's trading, Glazer's Red Football Ltd. said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

With 75 percent, Glazer can place his personal debt on United's books and take the club off the stock exchange and into private ownership. Manchester United has been listed on the stock exchange since 1991.

The NFL, which usually frowns upon cross-ownership, isn't sure if its rules would prevent Glazer from owning a foreign club. The league's finance committee will discuss it during spring meetings in Washington next week.

Glazer is expected to submit a formal document to shareholders on Wednesday.

Reaction to Glazer's takeover has been mostly negative and defiant. Fans fear Glazer will sell off the club's 67,000-seat Old Trafford stadium and raise prices. They also oppose foreign ownership.

Fans groups are calling for a boycott of Man United sponsors and planning demonstrations at the FA Cup final against Arsenal on Saturday in Cardiff, Wales.

"We won't do anything that endangers safety, but they may have to draft in the army to police the match," said Oliver Houston, a vice chairman of Shareholders United.

"We are calling on all supporters to wear black in Cardiff on Saturday," said Mark Longden of the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association. "If they can get hold of black flags, they should wave them because it represents what is happening to the club."

The group is also calling on fans not to renew their season tickets, to cancel subscriptions to Manchester United's in-house television station, and boycott sponsors Vodafone, Nike, Budweiser and Audi.

Financial analysts said Glazer could soon raise his stake to 90 percent. At that level, remaining shareholders would be required to sell their stocks to Glazer.

Glazer told the stock exchange Friday he would borrow $490 million to fund the $1.47-billion takeover.

Glazer said the bid also included $503 million of his own money, and another $509 million to be generated by issuing preferred securities to large investors.

Glazer's ownership reached 56.9 percent on Thursday after he bought out joint majority shareholders J.P. McManus and John Magnier, Irish racehorse owners. He previously owned 28.1 percent of the club.

Glazer is not the only current NFL owner to take more than a passing interest in soccer.

Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt owns 3 MLS teams: The Kansas City Wizards, Dallas Burn and Columbus Crew. He also owned the Dallas Tornado of the old NASL.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft owns MLS' New England Revolution and is believed to be backing a consortium that might buy into Liverpool of the English Premiership League. The 64-year-old tycoon is evidently keen to add a Premiership franchise to his portfolio.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=333598&cc=5739

[Markeymark]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4550141.stm

In the past two years the share price of the club has steadily risen as Mr Glazer has bought up chunks of stock, forcing him to pay more for each tranche in the club.

The steadily rising stock price culminated in the premium £3 a share he paid for the 28.7% Cubic Expression holding and other shareholdings last week.

Some experts believe Mr Glazer may have paid too much, with Sir Alan Sugar, the Amstrad boss and host of BBC television's The Apprentice, saying Mr Glazer had paid a "very full price".

He added: "I can't see from my point of view why it is such a good business deal."

Premier League chief Richard Scudamore has played down suggestions that Mr Glazer may now try to break out of a collective TV deal to start raising more cash at Man Utd.

[sdgukhsdgl]

guess i never really paid attention to club sales before, but is it normal for a potential owner to have to borrow a third of the final price to purchase the new team??

sounds kind of extreme to have to borrow that much upfront

[RJWGoBulls]

I am not sure but what is guaranteed is that now he has over 75% of the club the amount he has borrowed will be transfered to the club an become its problem not his, therefore it is likely that ticket prices will rise in order to cover this cost.

I cannot remember the exact figure but the loan has taken out will cost something like £25m a year in interest, the clubs profits last year were about the same, how can that be good for the club?  

The £25m profit figure was only reached with the team reaching the quater final stages of Europe and getting the TV money that goes with it, what happens if we dont achieve the same? Sell a player to makeup the difference?

[TripleB]

I realize that you guys take your football over there very very very seriously but these over reactions seems a bit much. Why not just WAIT and see what all this does to the team? If he starts pulling those shenanigans you THINK he might, then start with the boycotting, cancelling subscriptions, etc

If you want to be pissed at someone, go after those two Irish guys ................

Just one Yank's view.  8)

[Markeymark]

To put this in perspective, it's sort of like an Arab oil shiek buying the NY Yankees and saying how much of an avid baseball fan he is...

[RJWGoBulls]

MM - That is quite a good comparison but the oil sheik would be someone without a vast amount of personal wealth other than that tied up in other businesses who had to borrow a third of the cost to buy it but then make this borrowing the ownership of the club and then make the club (the fans) pay it back and not be his personal responsibility.

Trip - Yes we COULD just wait and see what happens but there is a terrifying precident of a premiership club who had a large amount of borrowing that the repayments could not be kept upon.  This forced the club to offload virtually all their top players at cut prices because the needed to cut the wage bill in order have money available to cover the interest payments, to supplement income they had to sell and lease back their ground and training ground.  The club inquestion (Leeds United) crashed from perrenial top half of the premiership with appereances in the European Cup semifinals to the championship/divison 1 (whatever they are calling it atm).  Currently they are untertaking a total rebuilding programme having removed the chairmen who caused the problems.

This is what we dont want to occur so if we can nip in in the bud before it occurs all the better

[TripleB]

Trip - Yes we COULD just wait and see what happens but there is a terrifying precident of a premiership club who had a large amount of borrowing that the repayments could not be kept upon.  This forced the club to offload virtually all their top players at cut prices because the needed to cut the wage bill in order have money available to cover the interest payments, to supplement income they had to sell and lease back their ground and training ground.  The club inquestion (Leeds United) crashed from perrenial top half of the premiership with appereances in the European Cup semifinals to the championship/divison 1 (whatever they are calling it atm).  Currently they are untertaking a total rebuilding programme having removed the chairmen who caused the problems.

This is what we dont want to occur so if we can nip in in the bud before it occurs all the better

This uneasiness makes a lot more sense now that I see there was a precedent but, if nothing, Malcolm is a pretty **** shrewd businessman so, hopefully, it won't get to the extremes that Leeds went through .......

[RJWGoBulls]

This uneasiness makes a lot more sense now that I see there was a precedent but, if nothing, Malcolm is a pretty **** shrewd businessman so, hopefully, it won't get to the extremes that Leeds went through .......

Thats the hope but as the Leeds fiasco only occured a couple of years ago it is fresh in the fans minds (esp cause leeds are the big rivals) and it has them spooked.

If Glazer wasnt coming in with the HUGE amounts of debt he has needed to create in order to buy us I would have thought there wouldnt be as much opposition to the move, esp if he was the Roman Abramovich type of billionnaire who was bought Chelsea with his own cash and was willing to spend money as required, (he has spend over £200m on players in 2 years) something Glazer wont be able to match.

Glazer might be a shrewd businessman but many fans feel he is going to run the club for the good of his profits not for the good of the club.

[USFCollin]

The Real Football fan rant:

As a Man U fan, this really is the end of days.  As Leeds proved, you really can't have this kind of debt and be successful.  Malcolm has promised against a sell and lease back, but as we learned here in Tampa with the stadium deal his promises often ring hollow.  Wait until the masses at Old Trafford get a whiff of what a personal seat license is... they might burn down City of Manchester Stadium (because it is still much more fun to pick on City, even when you're pissed at your own club).  

Third in the Premiership this year (because they can't beat mid-and-lower end of the table teams), out of Europe to an inferior side, but still a chance for an FA Cup on Saturday against the cheating bastards Arsenal.  This might be United's last trophy for a while, and if I were at the Millenium Stadium this weekend I would join my fellow Reds in wearing all black.  I'm not saying we're heading to the Championship anytime soon, but the salad days might be over.  Roman will do whatever it takes to get Chelsea to the top each season, Arsenal have a new ground soon and a wonderful academy, and even Liverpool seemed to have risen from their slump over the last decade (despite their performance domestically).

Meanwhile we're old (Keano, Giggsy, Scholes, Ruud), we don't play well together, and the kids we have drive me to drink.  We've got a brilliant Portuguese winger who has yet to learn the meaning of the word "pass," and a striker who at 19 was asked not to work with young children because he's hardly a role model.  Also like every other team in England not named Chelsea, we've got a keeper problem.  Oh for the days of Sheringham, the Baby Faced Assassin, and the Great Wall of Schmeichel!  We thought we'd be ruling Europe for a millenium!

End football rant here... not often I get to ***** about this team here in Tampa:)