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When the period of due diligence is completed at the end of this week, Malcolm Glazer is likely to make his takeover bid for Manchester United. If he pitches his offer as high as 311p a share, he may well tempt the Irish racing tycoons organised as Cubic Expression to sell. The United board will be placed in a difficult position, caught between a rock and a hard place. If they do not support the offer and it fails, they could be open to legal action from shareholders as the share price falls back to, say, 220p. The board's lawyers (Freshfields) have unearthed a 1991 verdict in which Dawson International sued Coats Patons for backing out of an agreed takeover. The judge ruled that the directors of Coats could consider the interests of the company in the broadest sense rather than just those of shareholders. However, the judge was making a ruling in a Scottish court and how an English court would interpret is is uncertain. Supposing, the worst does happen what can United's supporters do? There is talk of a breakaway club to be called FC United on the model of AFC Wimbledon. Indeed, we understand that there have already been informal discussions with the chair of AFC Wimbledon. The club would play at the City of Manchester Stadium and might well start in the North-West Counties League (if the club really wants to go back to its roots, why not call it Newton Heath?) Optimists consider that it could attract most of the Manchester area support and even some of the Irish support. There is a certain irony in the supporters of the world's richest club, which benefited very considerably from floating on the stock exchange, forming a club to compete in the lower tiers of the non-league pyramid. But for all the jokes about Surrey, United does have a solid core of lifelong supporters who are deeply affronted by recent events.
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