Manchester United should have done more to allay concerns surrounding the Glazers’ controversial ownership of the club, admits executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward in an interview with fanzine United We Stand.
Manchester United should have done more to allay concerns surrounding the Glazers’ controversial ownership of the club, admits executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward in an interview with fanzine United We Stand.
‘I think we’ve been guilty of not communicating our overall strategy,’ he said. ‘I’m sensitive to the general feeling about being fearful about the future of the club under this ownership and I think we should explain what the debt means. Time will perhaps make [the Glazers] look better owners than some think, especially when they are compared with other owners.’
Woodward said that he could not answer for the Glazers on whether they would sell up but expected them to be involved in the club for many years to come. They would never sell the naming rights to Old Trafford.
Woodward implied that United would not be averse to the idea of having a B team playing in the lower divisions of the Football League, similar to the model employed by Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. However, this idea has always encountered resistance from fans of other clubs and little enthusiasm from the football authorities.
Opposition to the Glazers appeared to reach a high point with the Green and Gold movement in 2010. At that time United’s debt had spiralled to £753m with an annual interest bill of £72m. The yearly interest payments have now dropped to about £21m on a net debt of £277m while revenues continue to increase to record levels.
The problem about the debt was, of course, that it was used to acquire the club rather than invest in players or facilities.