Manchester United fans want answers. There has been silence from the Glazer family after the announcement that the Glazers had found £220m deal to pay off their high-interest hedge-fund debt, that was feared could cripple Manchester United’s finances. When the announcement was made, there was a cautious optimism about the future of the club. As the silence continued at Old Trafford, with even David Gill admitting he “did not know how they were financing its repayment,” any optimism has turned to despair at the Glazers.
Are the Glazers trying to pull the wool over every Manchester United fans eyes here. With the criticism they receive, you would think they would have put themselves into the media spotlight and championed themselves as they paid off the debt. The worrying reality is they have not – which must alarm Manchester United fans. The fear must be that the Glazers have simply refinanced the debt at a more beneficial interest rate.
As well as this the Glazers have promised not to take any money out of the club. On a conference call to investors, the chief of staff, Ed Woodward, later went further and promised that the Glazers would not be taking a one-off dividend of up to £127m, as they are permitted to do under the terms of the bond, from the club’s accounts in the coming quarter either. Manchester United fans should not be thanking the Glazers for this. It was in actual fact the pressure from supporters groups, especially the Manchester United Supporters trust who put sufficient pressure from the fans that stopped the Glazers taking the money out of the club in one-off dividends and charges to pay down the PIKs, as they were entitled to do under the terms of the bond offer. Worryingly, as recently as last week, it is believed that the Glazers sought permission from the PIK holders to take £50m from the club’s cash flow to buy back that amount of the bond, before their strategy changed and they found a means to clear the PIK debt instead.
Manchester United fans must challenge the Glazers to explain themselves publicly. A statement from the Red Knight’s, whose takeover lays in dormant read.
“Now is the time for the Glazers to finally come clean and tell the truth about what is going on at Manchester United and what their plans are. What have they got to hide? No more secrecy. No more spin. Just tell the fans the truth.”
The financial pressure have been lifted off the club with this news, buts it was pressure put onto the club by the Glazers. Without clarification of how the debt has been paid off, how can Manchester United fans or others take this as a serious step to bringing the overall debt on the club down?
The Glazer’s can no longer hide what their plans are for Manchester United. The fans deserve better than this. If the Glazer family believe they can continue to hide issues from their fans, they will be in for a rude awakening. The spot light is on Manchester United and the Glazers. This deal is clearly a PR exercise gone wrong for the Americans. They firmly believed that announcing the deal would appease Manchester United fans. More questions are now being asked of the owners than before. Manchester United fans have to keep probing – keep demanding transparency from their owners. The lies will unravel in the future. The most important development is that Manchester United take their club back as soon as possible.
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