Manchester United chief executive David Gill criticized the bid by
rebel fans and a group of financiers to buy the club and said
Wednesday that the Glazer family is not planning to sell anytime
soon.
Gill asked how the 18-time English champions would be able to
operate as a business and make decisions under the group known as
the "Red Knights," claiming there would be too many people
involved.
"The idea of having 20, 30 or 40 very wealthy people running
Manchester United, I don't know how it would work in practice,"
Gill said at the SoccerEx convention. "The better-run clubs are
where there is clear single decision-making and it's quick and
efficient: Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, Sheikh Mansour at
Manchester City, Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan.
"Having a number of wealthy people involved, they will all
want to be involved in decision-making. I'm not sure what their
endgame is but the endgame is irrelevant. The vast majority of fans
of Manchester United should be happy with what we are doing and
staying at the top of domestic and world football."
But United fans are angry that the club's debts have risen to
709 million pounds ($1.1 billion) since the 2005 leveraged takeover
by Malcolm Glazer, who apparently won't listen to offers for the
three-time European champions.
"The owners are very long-term owners and have shown that
with Tampa Bay, which they took over in 1994-5," Gill said in a
question-and-answer session on stage. "They are not sellers. That's
not saying people like these Red Knights can't come forward with
some ideas."
Gill said the debt is easily serviced by the club's revenue,
listed at $462 million last season, according to a Deloitte's study
released this week. And he claimed the situation is far different
from when he opposed Glazer's plans for United in September 2004.
"The level of debt they were proposing and business plan
underpinning that debt were too aggressive," Gill said. "They
revisited those plans, changed the structure of the financing,
revisited the business plans underpinning that financing and that
culminated in the takeover in 2005."
The Glazers have recently raised 504 million pounds ($762
million) through a seven-year bond issue to help refinance some of
the club's liabilities.
But many fans complain manager Alex Ferguson has only spent a
third of the 80 million pounds ($131 million) brought by the sale
of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid last year.
"We're looking at players all the time," Gill said. "Alex has
been very clear. He's not going to go out and pay for a player just
because everyone else thinks we should do that. He's a Scot. He
wants value for money. He's not going to waste it."
The Manchester United Supporters Trust is behind the Red
Knights and has started to formulate a takeover bid with Jim
O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, and Keith Harris,
chairman of investment bankers Seymour Pierce.
Harris, who previously helped to broker Roman Abramovich's
2003 takeover at Chelsea and Randy Lerner's buyout of Aston Villa
in 2006, was mocked by Gill on stage at SoccerEx.
"Keith Harris will go anywhere that there's a bit of
publicity around, and we know that and we accept that," Gill said.
"That's his modus operandi, but his track record in football isn't
anything to write home about."
MUST says its membership numbers have soared since the Red
Knights went public on Tuesday with their plans. Last month, it was
at 36,000 but the figure now exceeds 78,000.
