Are the Glazers going to win over the United fans?

The rumours about the Glazer family selling Manchester United to the Qatar royal family won’t go away but it could just be wishful thinking amongst the many thousand Manchester United fans who would love to see the back of the American owners.

Rumours

Once again, the Glazer’s have denied the rumours as results showed a healthy increase in merchandise sales around the club.

Preliminary results for the six months to December 2010 will make disappointing reading for the ‘anti-Glazer’ campaign as commercial sales are up to £50 million, a rise of 30% on last year. This is against the backdrop of a concerted campaign to boycott club merchandise that has clearly had little or no effect.

Healthy

Also showing a healthy increase, up by 8%, is the figure for overall revenues at £156 million. The only fall in the figures was in match-day turnover although at 0.4% this is negligible.

The main issue for the fans who are so desperate to get the Glazers out of Manchester is the debt that they saddled the club with when they took over. These figures for the last half of last year show that there has even been an improvement in the overall debt figure which has fallen by 9% to £355 million.

Statement

Against these figures and the increasing rumours of a sale, the PLC issued the following unequivocal statement.

“No discussions have taken place, Manchester United is not for sale and the owners will not entertain any offers.”

To an outsider like myself, who knows very little about finance, it would seem that the financial position at the club is improving. That, coupled with the continued success on the pitch, could mean that the ‘anti-Glazers’ may start to lose some of their support. If the figures are accurate and income is on the increase, debt is on the decrease and the team are still on course for an unlikely repeat of their 1999 treble winning season, it would be difficult to understand how anyone would be too bothered with continuing their campaign.

Hatred

Of course, there are many reasons why some Manchester United fans are so vociferous in their hatred of the Glazers and I am sure they will be able to tell me why the campaign must and will continue.

If you are a United fan how do you feel about this latest news? Would you prefer the Qatar royal family to come in or do the latest figures give you more hope about the future under the Glazers?