Archive → October, 2010
United Against Glazer Protest
I’d been promoting the United Against Glazer March on twitter for the last few weeks and yesterday was the day of the march. From the media coverage you’d think not alot had happened, in the reality it could have been the biggest march since Glazer took over. I could only find 4 or 5 mentions of the protest and those where in reports of the game its self.
Once it got up the road, I headed off and stopped at the front of Old Trafford to watch it come by. I was stood just by the gates where the away fans coaches are, by then the green and gold flares were going off. I also noticed the Megastore shutters were down. After 5 mintues of watching green and gold, united against glazer, must, love united hate glazer, young and old groups of fans I carried on my way. As I moved on it was still coming past. Its estimated around 3,000 set off from near the tollgate and once it got down Warwick Road it was more like 5,000. Now considering FC United were playing, this was done just via word of mouth and via small parts of the internet. It was an extremely good turn out. For me the most shocking thing is after reading blog after blog and story after story of ‘the protest is dead because of the red knights’, we then have the biggest march since they took over. I put this too those reds who put out that claim! The Reds Knight bid maybe dead but the fans protests against the Glazers clearly aren’t. This is at a time when the team aren’t doing too bad, we’re not playing great football but we are unbeaten this season, and the Glazers are doing all they can to appease the fans. Buying past players medals and using David Gill as a media puppet.
Anyone thinking David Gill talks sense, just remember, his pay has now risen too £2m a year and I don’t get paid anything from anyone. Who are you going to believe someone who is paid by the Club to be told what to say or fans like me who do nothing but explain what’s really happening. How can a club have 4 or 5 different factions of fans against Glazer and be wrong according to Gill? Also remember David Gill was once against the takeover, then his pay cheques increased and now hes on Glazers side. Would he be on Glazers side if he got sacked or left the club. I doubt it! What I can see now is now the start of panic in the Glazer ranks, as they know it wouldn’t take much to cause a major uproar. If 5-10k turn up when there is just the possibility of the team struggling. What will happen if they use the clubs money to pay debt off? What will happen if the team really does start to struggle? I personally don’t want to find out and I’d call on all fans now to stand up and fight the cause. As I’ve said in the past, the first port of call is to pressure the Government. Email/phone/send a letter to number 10, your local MP and the minster for sport Hugh Robertson. So get on with it and fight your corner!
Pictures From The March http://www.stretfordendarising.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1038 Supplied By @SEA_MUFC On Twitter
This weeks hit list….
For the coming week starting tomorrow there are a number of things as fans you can get involved in.
Tomorrow at 3.30 the ‘United Against Glazer’ protest is on. It Leaves Trafford Bar/The Toll Gate at 4:15 before heading towards the Cricket Ground and then Old Trafford. Its simple and everyone is welcome. Link to the site below. http://www.unitedagainstglazer.co.uk/
MUST are releasing a Green And Gold football shirt which is sponsored by Sharp and made by Trekkers. £5 will of each sale will to go Sharps chosen charity. Prostate cancer. More can be seen here. http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/ The Shirt Can Be Pre-Ordered From This Link. http://www.greenandgold.tv
If your on twitter help me and others promote the Green and Gold Love United Hate Glazer Twibbon. You can add it too your facebook page or twitter page by clicking this link. http://twibbon.com/join/Love-United-Hate-Glazer-5
I’d call for all Reds to read this blog http://www.andersred.blogspot.com/ and then follow @Andersred on twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/andersred
As I’ve said in the last few weeks this is all currently about promotion. The Green and Gold colours are still here and it wouldn’t take much to get it going big again. Its still the symbol of change and should be until this is all over.
The New MUST Shirt And United Against Glazer March
Like many fans you’ll might have had an email from MUST. Back in the summer they released the black MUST football shirt with all money going to the British Heart Foundation. You’ll be happy know that The One Love product has now finished successfully raising £25,000 for the British Heart Foundation. They sold 5,000 shirts and my shirt is numbered 849 for future reference.
The email states MUST have now started a new project with Tekkers & Sharp involved. Sharp will be the Sponsor on the new shirt which many a great United player wore noticeably Eric Cantona. The new shirt will feature the Green and Gold colours of Newton Heath along with the Sharp Logo taking centre stage. The Shirts are priced at £19.99 for adults and £16.99 for Juniors. They will also be uniquely number like the last set and £5 from every shirt sold will go to Sharps Charity “Sharp 4 Prostate Cancer”. I don’t know how many are planned but if they can sell another 5,000 shirts. That’s another £25,000 towards Charity, the website for the shirt goes live on Thursday and I’ll promote the link on twitter.
This Saturday Coming Before United Play Spurs There Is A March Which I have actively been promoting on twitter. I’ve got an idea that numbers currently are 1500-2000 and upwards so far but everyone is welcome! I understand alot of FC fans will be down watching their game but if your not going to that, this is the next best thing. If your a season ticket holder at United, come. If you hate MUST, come. If you don’t have a ticket, come. Forget about the Red Knights, this is about showing everyone we haven’t gone away and this is not dead. This isn’t aimed at any group or organised by any group. This is a one off event known as ‘United Against Glazer’. I’ll be there.
Meeting Starts At The Tollgate and Trafford Bar Metrolink station at 3:30. The march will set off towards the Cricket Ground at 4:15 before making its way to the Stadium. 4:15pm 30/10/2010. United Against Glazer.
Looking for an answer?
People often ask me about who’s involved and what they can do. So below am going to provide a list of interesting sources I use and promote who promote themselfs against Glazer and have a large anti glazer following. This include fanzines, supporters, supporters groups and of course the anti glazer products.
First off you can follow me on twitter by clicking the follow me links on this page or click @wewantglazerout for those who know twitter.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) – I recommend everyone becomes a Full Member £10-15 a Year and also joins the Capital share scheme. This is basically the phoenix fund under a different name. Every red should have cash in this I do. You can normally find them on match days outside one of the houses on Sir Matt Busby Way.
http://action.joinmust.org/index.php/content/splash
The Independent Manchester united Supporters (IMUSA) – Started in 1995 they were cast out by Glazer in 2005 after starting to get ticketing deals
set up with the PLC. Membership is £5 a month and they’ve been the backbone of promoting supporter ownership, ticketing and safe standing in the English game.
http://www.imusa.org/
The Andersred Blog by Andy Green – found on twitter @andersred I recommend everyone follows him and gives the blog a good read.
http://andersred.blogspot.com/
TShirts-United.com – Heres a selection of Anti Glazer T-Shirts from the guys who know best. 100s of unofficial designs which make the megastore AON shirts look average.
http://www.tshirtsunited.com/catalogue/tshirts/anti-glazer-tshirts.html
Red Issue – This is the only mag I’ve ever brought on match day, £2 an issue. If you still go, drop the official program and manutd.com forums join the forum and buy the fanzine on your way into the ground. They will soon put you in your place, am sure they’d put me in my place if I allowed it. Not for the faint hearted. There are other fanzines, if anyone recommends any that I should promote please let me know. http://www.redissue.co.uk/
Seen the famous Love United Hate Glazer stickers, flags and products. See here…. http://www.loveunitedhateglazer.com/
If you have facebook or twitter please use add The Love United Hate Glazer Twibbon to your avatar/profile pic. This is the 2nd most popular twibbon after the Manchester United badge. This is the only twibbon I actively promote. http://twibbon.com/join/Love-United-Hate-Glazer-5
If anyone else has more to add please let me know. Follow me on twitter for more information @wewantglazerout
The United Movement And The Glazers
This second post will touch on how, why and what. In This Fight Against Glazer I’ve seen four maybe five different groups of fans. You may class yourself as in all or in none.
First you have FC United, the 2005 group of fans which saw that Manchester United was no longer welcoming them. The Glazers banned IMUSA a big part of what alot of fans saw as the start of fans having say within the club. The deals reached with between the club and fans was ripped up. Who ever said the PLC wasn’t all good. £25 match tickets under the PLC, well not under Glazer.
Second group is Shareholders United, now known as the Manchester United Supporters Trust, another group of fans pushed aside and ignored by the Glazers. Until around January/February MUSTs main aim spend aload of cash on a club house. Now alot of fans think they are just collecting email addresses. I think MUST as a group do alot of work but some of the other things they’ve planned in the past just don’t add up. For example should MUST even have a view on Rooney signing? Clutching at straws. MUST had the Phoenix fund which is still going but if you ask anyone about it? What’s that? I’ve had a number of people asking me why don’t we set up a fund to buy the club back? I say we have one already. Do we? Yes Is Called the Capital Share Scheme. My view is MUST should be setting funding goals each year how much they plan to raise for the Capital Share Scheme. I’ve been actively tweeting for over 9 months about the Glazer issue. I have no idea how much they have currently raised. Back in 2006 it was around £2m. How Much Is In that fund now?
The Red Knights are mentioned alot next to MUST and I think its time MUST made a big decision. We were told a bid was coming. June and July came and went. Nothing happened. My view politely drop Keith Harris, keep it quiet until they can make a bid or start to lose the movement. The one good thing I can note which MUST has done in the last few weeks is to push the Government. MUST shouldn’t involve its self with Rooney. Instead it should be writing weekly letters to all different people, MPs, public departments and the PM/DPM offices pushing football ownership. It should be talking to all other supporters groups through supporters direct aiming to launch a join protest or some sort of join action which aims at promoting the issue of fan ownership. This could start in the form of letter signed by all clubs part of supporters direct calling for change. Second needs to be pressuing the Minister For Sport – Hugh Robertson for change. An another active letter for starts by all clubs to him would show we won’t accept half hearted measures. Following the responses pressure can be called on where to go next. I have contacted Hugh and I got the response back its not The Governments to tell the FA/PL what to do but they will pressure them to put certain changes into place. What about charities? Banks? and other areas? They all have their own laws should sport be allowed to do as it pleases when it clearly cannot control its self. If they cannot run themselfs correctly it is the Governments job to step in. They stepped in with the banks, if should step in when Pompey, Westham and other clubs need to be saved from certain owners. It is not acceptable to say its not the Governments job. They created laws in the stands when that was a problem, they can have laws on the ownership of clubs. If Cameron finally wants to do something right fix this, I might just vote for you at the next election. Otherwise I don’t think I’ll bother.
The next group is the Love United Hate Glazer movement. Some see this as a militant group but I’d say its more of a movement. You need the guys who cause some trouble and anger in a fight like this to keep that interest going. I can’t really fault them, doing what they can with small resources showing that in the ground even a flag can’t even be shown without CES thugs ripping it down. That’s one thing I do not like about Glazer. Inside Old Trafford they treat fans like dirt then threaten them over and over again.
When we consider the groups above they likely cover a large % of hardcore fans. I’d say the 4th and 5th groups are two groups of fans. One side knows Glazer is bad for the club but isn’t someone who will boycott or doesn’t fully understand the options either on offer. They ask the simple question, ‘how are we going to get rid of the glazers?’ and expect you to answer in less than 9 words. If you don’t they don’t really want to know. Its too hard for their minds to accept anything else other than what’s happening now. This is the group putting the most into the club interms of revenue. They’ll either go to all the games or they won’t go to any but they’ll have the latest AON shirt. I’d say this group of fans is still quiet large but I expect it too drop in size hugely if Glazer makes the wrong move. My view it drops in size every day.
The last group of fans is a smaller group of fans, this is the most worrying set. This is either the fan who thinks United made £100m last year have £160m in the bank whats the problem. The fan who either doesn’t know about the debt or knows about it in great detail but still doesn’t see a problem. This is the business model person or the new fan from India or China. The business model person may see your argument about it being a football club but the money issues will not be a problem for them. That for me is the most worrying thing for every fan you or I tell there will be 1000 more who don’t know the full facts.
In every 1000 fans most people will go into these groups and that’s where the group talk stops. If you support FC United or go to every United this season, and think the Glazers are good because we won the league three times, the point is, its time we all started a fresh, become United, see the club as a club, not a business, then push for what this should have started out as. The fans aim to own part of the club. MUST need to move on, they need pressure the government and then set funding targets. The fans need to unite. In my view it can be that simple but this is Manchester United. Nothing is ever that easy.
First Post Background, Rooney, David Gill, FC And The Enemy
Welcome to my blog. Many of you we’ll have likely come here via my twitter page @wewantglazerout and this blog will hopefully provide yourself with information and more detail about what’s going down in the world of Manchester United, Malcolm Glazer and the supporters fight of removing the cancer of our club. I am known as ‘the tweeting carrington resident in one or two places, or the big red from South Manchester for those that know me.
For those who don’t know, Manchester United Were Brought By A Man Called Malcolm Glazer in 2005 under a heavy amount of protests. Afew years before the protests worked and the Government stopped the owner of Sky called Rupert Murdoch buying the club before Glazer came along. The first time it wasn’t about debt and until 2005 no one really knew what was too come. Manchester United Are Now In Over £700m Of Debt Thanks To Malcolm Glazer. Around £520m on the club and around another £220m and rising in their personal PIK debts. Alot of people believe the PIK debts are the Glazers debts. Well in 2010 this changed. The Bank debt the club was originally brought with was converted into bonds. This is still debt and the club still owes this money. The issue is the bank rules on what the Glazers could take out has been relaxed. The Glazers plan was to use Manchester Uniteds accounts which currently have £160m in, to pay part of this debt off but this has been delayed after the protests and to avoid any more fan backlashes. The bond rules state they could take out around £70m and use this to pay down the PIK debt. This has not yet happened. A meeting was reported on the bloomberg website between the Glazers and the 10 or so holders of the PIK debt last week which showed the only reason they weren’t going to use the clubs cash was because of a fan backlash.
First post and too much to blog about, first thing is Wayne Rooney, I’ll keep this short because we’ve heard enough about him. Some of us reds hate him and some will still love him but he either got away with it or something had been set up. Fergie didn’t let Beckham, Ruud, Stam or Keane get away with it, theres no reason why he’d let Wayne and his agent the hoover man get away with it. When I say set up, Fergie and Rooney planned this to make it known to the Glazers ‘I am this club and we can hold you to ransom.’ or it was a private plan to get funding. Why else would it be public? Fergie gets a proper transfer fund, Gill gets a story to prolong his job and Rooney gets his lifes biggest pay off. Everyones happy apart from the Glazers. They now have to watch part of their fund towards debt go towards a player and if they have allowed Fergie to spend big, its gonna be big bucks not being paid on debt. I am not the only one to have come up with that conclusion. One or two scousers I’ve spoken to agree.
David Gill, what can we say about the Man. To most hes known as Judas Gill but I’ve come up with a new one The Manchester United Information Minster. Have a watch…. The Iraqi Information Minister
For those that don’t know he doesn’t think debt is a problem at Manchester United and he thinks United can challenge Manchester City interms of money power. City are owned by a billionaire oil tycoon and have spent over £400m so far just on players. They spent £22m on Lescott and deal for Tevez could be reportedly worth £41m by the end of it. Tevez might be hated now but at the time fans were singing his name and asking for Fergie to sign him up. Why didn’t he sign, money. United just could not compete and I believe they didn’t want to be held ransom next to what City could offer. If United ever go in for a top player City will be watching and waiting to do the same thing. The Debt and City Money Bags. Were not talking about winning things simply about signing players and United were held back by Chelsea and now City. Back when Roman took over, we were in for Duff, Essien and Mikel. Mikel was a clear sign of how money and agents twist todays game. We got priced out of Duff and then Essien. Its something David Gill won’t admit because the money hes paid. Funny that. Won’t admit theres a problem with money because hes paid too much money.
Am not really a fan of FC United, my team is United and only United but I do keep an eye out too see just what they are up to. I think the best things they bring to the table is to show that fan ownership of a club is perfectly viable and the stadium development they have planned is fantastic for the City and Local Area it will stand on. I was reading they have raised just over £300k of £500k needed for donations back on the 21st Of Sempetber the day their share sheme was launched which aims to raise a total of £1.5m. If you are an FC United supporter no doubt you’ll have put paid in but if you haven’t done I’d recommend you do so. This share offer closes on the 30th of November 2010 so do it now for success. Its possible that the ground could be built for the start of 2011 if all goes well but as FC United say it can only work if enough fans put in. Link below…. Copy and paste.
http://www.fc-utd.co.uk/communityshares
The other big news story is that FC United have entered the FA Cup in the first round after beating Barrow 1:0 and will now play away against Rochdale at 3pm on the 6th Of November. This is a big if but if they do beat Rochdale to enter the second round, then beat their second round opposition, it gets tasty against the really big boys with the a possible draw against Manchester United. As I say its a massive if, but what a story that could be.
Final piece of the first blog which cannot be missed is the enemy. Liverpool, City and Leeds. Leeds got beat tonight you’ll all be pleased to know. 4:0 at home against Cardiff which leaves them 16th in the Championship. I’d say its safe to say we won’t be playing them anytime soon, shame. City well they were back to their best this weekend after Arsenal put them back in their place after a 3:0 which I can say rather enjoyed after last weeks ‘Rooney is signing for City’ Couple of pictures of idiot city fans on twitter that most of you should have seen and Liverpool, yes they won but they are still down in 18th place. They play Bolton and then Chelsea next so that could be interesting. To any City fans reading this. 35 years in February.