A great article from the Observer.
United at the centre of game falling apart
Kevin Mitchell
Sunday May 15, 2005
The Observer
For those with a drop of radical blood left, there was something comfortingly nostalgic about the sight of angry men standing at the factory gates last week, burning an effigy of their cruel new boss. They might have been Dagenham car workers, Yorkshire miners, Scottish dockers, dustbin men or printers, shimmering spectres now from distant times when to kick against the pricks was considered admirable rather than merely pointless.
They were, of course, football fans, the new class of the exploited proletariat.
But just as workers in the 1970s and 1980s bent to the will of resolute enemies in government and industry, it was impossible to escape the conclusion that those Manchester United supporters railing so passionately and with such good cause against the takeover of their club by Malcolm Glazer were doomed to fail. It was a suspicion confirmed in their rhetoric. They would, they proclaimed to the TV cameras, boycott the Megastore! It resembled gesture politics at its saddest - powerless fans threatening to go in 'kicking and screaming' against the corporate raider from hell and Tampa Bay but knowing, deep down, their chances are slim.
They have got the nation with them, no doubt. But so did the miners. Then came Orgreave, blood, recriminations and defeat.
Certainly universal sympathy went out to Jules Spencer, the chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association, in his determination to stop Glazer reaching the 75 per cent stake in the club that would enable him to make the club his private plaything and a dustbin for his debts. And few could disagree with Oliver Houston, the vice-chairman of Shareholders United, who saw treachery in the sellout by the Irishmen JP McManus and John Magnier. 'They have taken the 30 pieces of silver,' he said of their decision to walk away from United and their estranged friend, Sir Alex Ferguson, weighed down by £76million of Glazer's money but not, apparently, any sense of shame.
Ferguson must know he is paying the price for his feud over a mere race horse. McManus and Magnier have played a long game in their bitter and puerile war with the manager, waiting until Glazer's offer was irresistible. It was a cruel longueur because it not only suggested they were big enough to put behind them their dead argument with Ferguson but gave supporters the impression they were on their side, staving off the repeated advances of Glazer. Neither seems to have been the case.
Yet, injustice notwithstanding and in the light of this squalid intrigue, there are two festering issues for United fans to resolve. Is their club worth supporting? And what, indeed, is Manchester United?
David Boyle, the deputy manager of Supporters Direct, an umbrella organisation for 127 trusts, more than 60 of which have some form of shareholding on behalf of supporters in football clubs across the country, says the idea of United fans walking out on Old Trafford forever and forming a new club is not as ludicrous as it might sound to those besotted with the club's legendary status.
'Some fans are already talking about starting again,' Boyle says, 'like AFC Wimbledon, who took 3,500 supporters with them. There will be a lot of people who will boycott United and it's not just over Glazer. He might just be the last straw. It is now so expensive to follow a club as big as United that many people simply can't afford it any more. They now have what might seem to be a convenient excuse to go.'
Futile or noble? Both, probably. Such is the fan base of United, it would not be long before those empty seats were filled again by incomers and those among the faithful whose addiction is beyond healing.
What, though, would the defectors be leaving? Romantics point to the club's glorious history, a style of football, a thousand shared memories, hundreds of wonderful nights. They will view defection as cowardly and dishonest, a betrayal of all they have ever believed in about United. This is the power of the footballing myth. For some, no amount of damning evidence will sway them from their allegiance.
Cynics. meanwhile, see greedy businessmen presiding over a corporate monster and a team of hugely rich footballers whose loyalty is determined not by old-fashioned values but by their agents; already rumours are spreading that Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs are getting ready to go. Rio Ferdinand might not be far behind. How long will Roy Keane's legs hold him up? John Obi Mikel, the Nigerian teenager at the centre of a tug-of-war between United and Chelsea, might now view London as a more promising destination than Manchester. Others, in place or in waiting, could easily become skittish. And Ferguson, at 63 and in charge of a fading team, could decide to negotiate a dignified exit rather than risk a humiliating sacking by an owner for whom he appears to have little affection. David Gill, the feisty chief executive who has counselled bravely against the entreaties of Glazer, will almost certainly be readying himself for the long envelope, too.
It all has the look of a desperately listing ship. There could be worse to come. If Glazer is as ruthless as his critics say - 'a snake in sheep's clothing', as an American judge once called him - he will provide United supporters with the most terrible dilemma: to stay and fight, or walk away, disillusioned by the virus that has taken such a grip on all of football: greed.
This is the question United fans will be asking themselves this morning, on the eve of their final Premiership match. It is a comic twist that only victory in the FA Cup - the Cup they so arrogantly refused to defend in their pomp - can rescue their miserable season. It might all have been so different had Shareholders United moved into the boardroom earlier. 'If Glazer had tried this on five years from now,' says Boyle, 'the United fans would have had a very good chance of stopping him.'
It is some claim. But, he says, Supporters Direct is one of the best-kept secrets in football and is growing. He predicts that its guiding principle - turning fans into shareholders and encouraging the bond between the community and the boardroom - is the only way forward. 'Every model has been tried: butcher, baker, candlestick maker, millionaires, sugar daddies, plcs. They have all run up debts and gambled with tomorrow's money today. This is the only game left in town because, as long as there are football fans, there will be football clubs. In truth, the game has never been as properly run and community-based as it can be.'
There are 10 Football League clubs where trusts have a majority holding, with Stockport County and Rushden & Diamonds coming on board next month. 'In five years,' says Boyle, '25 per cent of clubs in the Nationwide will be run by supporters trusts. That should be up to 50 per cent in 10 years. And 20 years from now we expect the vast majority of clubs to be run by their supporters.'
In various forms, it works in Norway, Germany and Spain. If the great experiment in footballing democracy were to take hold here, the fans just might rescue what is left of football's soul.
