Thousands join anti-Glazer protest
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-24 10:01

A bid by tycoon Malcolm Glazer to buy Manchester United is doomed to failure according to protest organisers after thousands demonstrated before the Champions League tie with AC Milan.

Manchester United fans protest against the proposed sale of the club to US tycoon Malcolm Glazer prior to their Champions League soccer match against AC Milan at Old Trafford in Manchester, February 23, 2005. [Reuters]

Fans chanting threats against the American businessman and waving laminated plastic sheets with 'No customers, No profit' and 'Not for Sale' marched from the nearby Old Trafford cricket ground to United's stadium, patrolled by mounted police.

The protest, organised by pressure group Shareholders United, followed detailed proposals tabled earlier this month by Glazer, which sources said would value the 126-year-old Premier League club at 800 million pounds.

Shareholders United vice-chairman Sean Bones, who estimated the number of protesters at well over 5,000, told Reuters: "It's been absolutely fantastic. It's been peaceful, passionate, frantic, vociferous but friendly.

"It's a reflection of the passion and the love that supporters have for the club and I think it sends a message that there's no way Malcolm Glazer can take over this club, the way the whole supporter base is against him."

Bones said the message was not solely intended for Glazer but also for his financial backers and the club's existing commercial partners, whose revenues could be hit by fans' opposition.

"It needs to go the bankers and it needs to go to the club's sponsors. When the supporters of Manchester United have signalled in this way that they won't tolerate Malcolm Glazer, he really hasn't got a future at he club," Bones said.

"He couldn't take over the club after a reaction like this. It would be ludicrous."

Supporters' objections to Glazer centre on the levels of debt, believed to be short of the 300 million pounds mark, that would be incurred by a club that currently enjoys the biggest revenues in the world.

Two chants recurred throughout the hour-long protest, the more innocuous being 'United, United not for sale, United not for sale.'

More sinister was a banner that read, 'You buy, you die', and a more personal chant along similar lines directed at the U.S. entrepreneur who is facing increasing opposition.

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