![]() Others began a campaign to fight the world’s most powerful media mogul via two newly-formed groups: Shareholders United Against Murdoch and the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association (IMUSA). Many fans, as Crick can testify, saw the front-page headline of “Gold Trafford” in The Sun, one of Murdoch’s newspapers, and were imagining all the extra millions the club would supposedly have to buy players. His view was that the takeover had the support of a “silent majority”. When the government intervened and Murdoch’s deal collapsed, Edwards hit out at the protestors. In 1998, that decision was made by Martin Edwards, United’s chief executive and largest single shareholder, who was often criticised by supporters but never to the level of the Glazer family. ‘It is not wrong to question Qatar’s bid – and we will’.Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid – the key questions answered.Sheikh Jassim, Qatar and just enough separation.Ins and outs of the Manchester United takeover… And the fans have no decision-making powers over who buys the club regardless.” “How many prospective owners have the money to undo the damage from nearly two decades of the Glazers?” he asks. Yet he also makes the point that Middle Eastern money is one of the realities of modern-day football and there is not a great deal the fans can do about it, even if they wanted to. Whatever happens, he says, United fans will not be “showing up at Old Trafford wearing a bisht or putting up a banner for Sheikh Jassim”. He does not want his club to be accused of being a sportswashing project in the same way that has happened with Manchester City for Abu Dhabi, and Newcastle United with Saudi Arabia. Patterson is acutely aware that the bid from Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, a Qatari banker with links to the top of the country, is a divisive and sensitive issue. Even when Sir Alex Ferguson’s team were winning trophies, the soundtrack largely comprised songs against the people at the top of the club. ![]() The anti-Glazer movement has been driven, defiant and, more than anything, dedicated. And there have been other times when the lines between disruption and disorder have been blurred. The Glazers had to be smuggled out of Old Trafford in the back of police vans because of a near-riot on their first visit. The green-and-gold movement made it suddenly unfashionable, mutinous even, to wear red to games. ![]() It’s just there has been a strong and very vocal minority.”įast-forward to 2023 and that statement might surprise the followers of other clubs who have seen near-unremitting protesting from United fans against the Glazer family for the last 17 years. Most United fans are not militant at all. He didn’t want to get involved all sorts of people you would expect to get involved didn’t. “I remember arguing with Tony Wilson, the saintly Tony Wilson, on a train. One of those people, Crick recalls, was the man who founded Factory Records, presented the local television news and came to represent Manchester and its music scene in so many ways.
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