Zeus and other "football" fans, have you heard?

[Liquid Blue]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

LONDON (AP) -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer gained control of the world's richest soccer team Thursday, drawing resentment from Manchester United fans who fear the "heart and soul" of the storied club has been sold to foreign interests.

Glazer began a $1.47 billion takeover bid of the team by becoming its majority shareholder. His ownership reached 56.9 percent after he bought a 28.7 percent share held by Irish racehorse owners J.P. McManus and John Magnier.

Financial analysts said the deal seemed certain to succeed, and suggested Glazer's ownership could quickly reach the critical 75 percent threshold. At that level, he could take the club private.

More at the link.

[Superted]

Yes we heard, it's practically the number one news story over here, sad isn't it.

[scumbag]

it is sad Disliked, but im a Liverpool fan and couldnt give a toss what happens to Man U, just as long as we win the European Championship next week, pray to god!!

(sorry if you are a Man U fan its just................meh)

[Zemyla]

I'm tempted to say, "So what?", but since many people find it important, I think I should say something more substantial.

He can't do anything too radical, because he risks losing all support and cutting his own financial throat.

[Superted]

it is sad Disliked, but im a Liverpool fan and couldnt give a toss what happens to Man U, just as long as we win the European Championship next week, pray to god!!

(sorry if you are a Man U fan its just................meh)

lol I meant it's sad that this should be the major headline on the 6 o clock news, i don't watch football.

The way I see it, football is a business, and businesses are bought out,sold etc etc all the time. The fans should blame all the greedy capitalists involved.

[scumbag]

ahhhh, gotcha, thought you were whining about him taking over

[ZeUs!!]

I haven't read the story so sorry if I'm going over anything here:

The main problem with Glazer is that he has openly admitted he is just in it for the money. The fans fear that all they love about the club will be put up for sale just as long as Glazer makes a few bucks, yet many have failed to realise that since the club floated on the stock exchange there isn't anything a the club you can't buy. Still you can't blame them for resisting even more sales. They feel that Glazer will hike up the ticket prices and wont pour enough of his own money into the club to buy players. I think he's promised £20m per year, which is about the same as newly-promoted Wigan have got.

Many are simply xenophobic, they feel that an American shouldn't be running an English club. Currently a Bosnian (i think) owns Portsmouth, an Egyptian owns Fulham, of course a Russian owns Chelsea, an entire investment group owns Spurs and the two previous Manchester United biggest shareholders were Irish. Yet they feel America doesn't have enough football hertiage to understand the game. There's a Budweiser advert on telly at the moment that takes the piss out of themselves and sums the feeling up well. They say that football's too boring and they're going to export it to America and rename it 'Soccerball' where every single match will be settled by a penalty shootout and there's not enough goals scored, so they're going to play with 15 balls at once.

They feel that Glazer's going to make changes to the structure of the club aswell, such as booting out the manager, and they feel that with all his other sports club Man Yoo are going to get neglected. I don't know why they're that fussed though, the guy's 76 so I'll give him 4 years left on this planet, and they've got no chance of beating Chelsea in the next 4 years anyway.

[scumbag]

of course a Russian owns Chelsea

made a good point, but look what great things Morhino did for Chelsea but he was (sort of) european, americans have different concepts of football and so might not fully understand how the English feel and respond to the beautiful game.

[ZeUs!!]

1) Mourinho is Portuguese meaning he is very definately European
2) Echo...

[NaiLed]

USA! USA! USA!

Another day, another avalanche of bad news for fans of the MU Galaxy
soccerball kickers. As American bread-head Malcolm Glazer set in
motion his formal takeover bid for the franchise, having increased
his stake to almost 72%, the repercussions continued to bounce around
Old Trafford like a coked-up kangaroo. First up for consideration was
the future of Sir Alex Ferguson. The United manager has made no
secret of his displeasure at the prospect of a Glazer takeover in the
past, but cancelled his news briefing this morning, fuelling fears
that he may be about to make way for Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer
Randy White.

Fergie's possible departure is not all United fans have to worry
about. With egg-headed bean-counters shouting: "Massive Manchester
United debts ahoy!", it has emerged that Glazer's takeover could
affect the club's future participation in Big Cup and Euro Vase -
United may not get a licence to play on the continent if it owes the
moneylenders big vig. "If one club was permanently in debt and the
debt showed no sign of clearing, then the licence of that club would
have to be reviewed," confirmed a Uefa suit in Zurich.

Not even the prospect of Man Utd Megastores outnumbering golden arches
on the world's high streets appears to be a comfort to devotees.
"We're in effect now the resistance," said Sean Bones, a
representative of the Shareholders Group that still honestly believes
its publicly listed company is not for sale. "In the long term we're
going to have to devalue the brand. We're going to have to ask
supporters not to buy the merchandise in the club, not to support the
sponsors of Manchester United and we have to directly affect the
revenue streams going into the club."

But if Glazer's son Joel is to be believed, such fears are groundless:
"Our intention is to work with the current management, players and
fans to ensure Manchester United continue to develop and achieve even
greater success," he whooped and a-hollered, while on BBC's lunchtime
news an old man named Bill Poe was throwing in his two cents: "Glazer
has a way of doing things that in my opinion is not good. He has very
poor relations with the public," drawled the Mayor of Tampa - home of
the Glazer family's famously bobbins Buccaneers American football
team.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/fiver

[ZeUs!!]

You bitch! I was going to post the fiver!

[Nockm]

We have a new fiver poster!

[NaiLed]

You bitch! I was going to post the fiver!

you snooze you lose

[scumbag]

1) Mourinho is Portuguese meaning he is very definately European
2) Echo...

bugger, always get them confused for some reason, i stand corrected zeus
whats with the "echo"?

[Dameon Angell]

Los Angeles Galaxy vs Manchester United, lol. That'd be so fucking funny to watch Man U just own the MLS teams. I can see it now... they walk onto the pitch with their street clothes on with that "what the fuck are we doing here?" look on their faces. And the game would end with Ferdinand scoring his first goal on Man U (I believe that it would be his first goal, actually?), uncontested, the end.