Old Trafford Protests, Sunday May 2, 2021

[Patrick Thistle]

The United fan on MOTD2 was quite good this evening. Shearer and Jenas had nothing worth saying.

Some good comments on this thread. Cheers all.

[jason voorhees]

They need to leave Glazer alone.

https://deadspin.com/jay-glazer-woul...ble-1846807903

[Hot Pepsi]

That happens on Twitter a lot.

For example, eminent climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann gets a lot questions about Heat and Miami Vice.

[Levin]

So I saw that in twitter yesterday or the day before. It looked more like Glazer trying to forment it and a lot of people jokingly playing along.

[ursus arctos]

Bantz

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

How do we reckon the Premier League will react to this? When all's said and done this has caused the cancellation of a fixture, and not just any fixture but probably the biggest one of the season in the eyes of the league's broadcasters. Surely they're not just going to say "well that was a bit naughty, try not to do it again?". On the other hand, the most likely sanction could be forcing the club to play fixtures behind closed doors, which in the circumstances would be ironic to say the least...

[Satchmo Distel]

Close Old Trafford until the Glazers spend some money on it. Move home games to a ground at least 200 miles away.

In an ideal scenario, the government kicks the Glazers out of the club and moves to a 50%+1 model.

[Snake Plissken]

Which would screw over a lot of clubs. I’m not against a 50+1 model in principle but with the state of most clubs you are never going to get there.

[DCI Harry Batt]

How would it screw over clubs?

[Snake Plissken]

It’s gone unremarked but the people going on about ownership models (in the media, not here) but under 1st January this year there was a Premier League club that was fully owned by local directors who didn’t take a penny out in salary or dividends and built up a profitable business that stored money for a rainy day.

And it wasn’t enough to survive consistently in the Premier League. Even when they somehow qualified for Europe they were told but those “experts” to get out of it as soon as possible.

Football is broken.

[Snake Plissken]

How would it screw over clubs?

The vast majority rely on one guy to keep going as it is. Cutting that by half - who steps in?

Take Leicester for example. Are they bad owners? How do you get them to 50+1?

[Janik]

50 + 1 is a way to fix that though, isn't it? Burnley's problem was they were competing on an uneven playing field when others could pump funds in that they couldn't match. 50 + 1 brings everyone else back towards the sort of sustainable club Burnley were (kicking and screaming in some cases).

[Janik]

Take Leicester for example. Are they bad owners? How do you get them to 50+1?

An interesting question. Put bluntly, it has never been truly tested because they appear to be effective owners. However back in the Championship days they did gamble the future of the club on their ability to run it, in much the same way others have. The outcome was different because they were right in their assessment of themselves as competent, but the underlying behaviour was arguably identical to owners who have overrated their own skills.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Well, me, I'd just confiscate 50% + 1 and have it legally protected in a supporters' trust. I'd imagine others would have other routes.

Clubs having less money to spunk up the wall would be a good, not a bad thing.

[Patrick Thistle]

A 49.9% owner could still pump funds in and most fans will support them to the hilt. They won't have the final say on everything though which might put some people off.

A downside of yesterday's protests is when the 50+1 idea is mooted the response will be a picture of people on the pitch at Old Trafford throwing flares and the question "You want to put these people in charge?!?"

[DCI Harry Batt]

"Yes" is the only answer to that.

[Janik]

Well, me, I'd just confiscate 50% + 1 and have it legally protected in a supporters' trust.

You will be needing to reform the courts first so they don’t rule that move illegal and make the public purse liable to pay out billions of quid for all those 50%s. And come the revolution, will Football be that high on the priority list?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Yes, culture will be massively important and very high up the list.

[Sean of the Shed]

A 49.9% owner could still pump funds in and most fans will support them to the hilt. They won't have the final say on everything though which might put some people off.

A downside of yesterday's protests is when the 50+1 idea is mooted the response will be a picture of people on the pitch at Old Trafford throwing flares and the question "You want to put these people in charge?!?"

Absolutely. I would be delighted to see Man Untied run by that kid who climbed up on the goalnet and filmed himself on his phone.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Does the 50+1 'members' vote always get awarded as a single bloc vote in the German model, or is it on some kind of PR? And who decides who can become and remain a club member?

[Ray de Galles]

The vast majority rely on one guy to keep going as it is. Cutting that by half - who steps in?

If you take away the insane spending arms race by imposing a sensible model on all clubs they shouldn't need white knights to "keep going".

The argument used to be that English clubs would fall behind in Europe if that happened (which is irrelevant to all but a handful of clubs anyway) but recent events have shown that the current situation is unsustainable for European clubs as well.

[Ray de Galles]

You will be needing to reform the courts first so they don’t rule that move illegal and make the public purse liable to pay out billions of quid for all those 50%s. And come the revolution, will Football be that high on the priority list?

Is nationalisation (which is what TonTon was proposing and seems the sensible path) really illegal under current laws? Genuine question.

[Janik]

Nationalisation and confiscation without compensation are not quite the same thing.

[Janik]

And who decides who can become and remain a club member?

Ah yes, the Rasen Ballsport Leipzig ‘workaround’. A definite issue for imposing such a rule on to a pre-existing situation where clubs are not owned by their members.

[Ray de Galles]

Nationalisation and confiscation without compensation are not quite the same thing.

OK, the language and mechanism needs some fine tuning before we put the manifesto to print then.