Kick Out the Sports!
by Louis Cooke

Bob Cook is taking the week off. Taking his place is Louis Cooke, who despite the similar name is not Bob's pseudonym.

MANCHESTER, England — There's a bad moon rising over this city. Any day now, Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer will announce a formal takeover bid for Manchester United, the world's most successful soccer club. It will be his third attempt to seize control, but fans have found his persistence far from endearing. Most don't want him anywhere near the club.

Glazer is the second-largest stakeholder in United, which is a public limited company, like several leading European clubs. His previous bids were rejected by the United board because they relied too heavily on borrowing and might have put the financial security (and success) of the club in jeopardy. United is a profit-making club — a rare thing in the soccer world.

Glazer says his new, hostile bid involves less borrowing and thus less risk, which is a point of dispute. It certainly depends upon assumed future revenues, and fear over his plans to ensure these has driven fans to action. They've been spurred on by reports that he intends to increase ticket prices, charge more for merchandising and possibly even lease the name of the club's Old Trafford stadium to a sponsor. To United fans, that would be like daubing a temple with feces.

The resistance has sprouted in several forms. Shareholders United, a group of thousands of fans with a financial stake in the club, has organized several marches to protest the takeover and covered parts of the city in posters declaring "UNITED: Not for $ale." The Independent Manchester United Supporters Association has launched a petition to boycott all sponsors of Manchester United — including Nike, Budweiser, Vodafone and Fuji — should Glazer succeed. And a small, shady group calling itself the "Manchester Education Committee" has taken a more extreme approach, orchestrating pitch invasions at reserve games and graffiti attacks on the homes and vehicles of board members.

The fire is fueled by distrust of Glazer. Fans don't believe he will put the club first and think he's looking only to wring money from it. Some of the players have expressed their own concerns, saying it's difficult to see how Glazer controlling the club would be an improvement, and that the boardroom saga has distracted attention from performances on the pitch. And so far Glazer has shown considerable indifference to, or at least lack of knowledge of, United's culture and history. His second attempt to gain control was announced on the anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster, an event that still looms large at Old Trafford (a clock outside the ground shows the exact time 23 people, including seven players, died when their airplane crashed in February 1958).

Tales of Glazer's business dealings in the United States have not managed to inspire confidence, either. When trying to buy the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example, he promised he'd half-fund a new stadium. But once he got control, he reneged and ordered the authorities to build a new stadium within two years or risk losing the team to another city.

United's current fortunes have only added to any worry among fans. The past month, in particular, has been a bit rough. The club was knocked out of the money-spinning European Champions League competition. It lies 11 points behind leading team Chelsea in the English Premier League, and with the season drawing to a close and Chelsea in red-hot form, looks unlikely to make up the ground. Long-serving manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been under the spotlight, and club chairman David Gill was quoted as saying he was "sackable" — long thought unthinkable for the architect of United's ascension and dominance in the past decade. Then the cherry on the cake: half-year financial results saw profits down by £13 million, thanks in part to an increasing wage bill.

Fans hope the current climate, particularly the fall in profits, won't lead shareholders to consider cashing in their chips when Glazer announces his bid — particularly as it's rumored to involve an improved share price that could be tempting. Having knocked Glazer back twice before, the board looks likely to sit on the fence this time and advise neither for nor against, meaning the club's fate rests in the hands of the other large stakeholders. The largest, Irish businessmen JP McManus and John Magnier, who own a 28.9 percent share to Glazer's 28 percent, told fans in February they were "long term investors." They're also said to believe Glazer's £800 million bid is an undervaluation of the club.

Glazer cannot succeed without McManus and Magnier, so their comments are reassuring for fans. But contingency plans have been drawn up just in case Glazer does find a way through. As well as the boycott of the club and its sponsors, which could be very damaging if coordinated effectively, there are detailed plans to form a breakaway club, with a new name, kit and ground. (This isn't unprecedented in recent English soccer history: After Wimbledon moved north to Milton Keynes and became the MK Dons, fans set up AFC Wimbledon, a grass-roots club designed with the community at its center.)

It's a painful thing to consider for fans of such a well-supported, successful and historic club as United. But equally as wrenching is the idea of their passion being tillered by a man with money on his mind. United captain Roy Keane once accused the club's fans of being too busy eating prawn sandwiches when they should be getting behind their team. Now, they might prove their mettle to him.

E-mail Louis Cooke at louis at mintcake dot com.