Red Devils owner Avram Glazer refuses to apologise to fans over European Super League plans
Avram Glazer remained sullenly silent to several questions.
The plan to form a European Super League with 11 other clubs has made the relationship with the fans even more toxic.
Approached by Sky News in Florida, the club’s owner was given the opportunity to address widespread fan discontent, renewed by the farcical and quickly aborted plan to form a European Super League. Man United fans, who have long complained that the Glazer family have never communicated with fans since their controversial 2005 takeover – Avram Glazer remained sullenly silent to several questions.
“Do you have anything you need to say to Manchester United fans, Mr Glazer?” began Sky’s Sally Lockwood. However, the 60-year-old, strode past without acknowledging her presence. The reporter followed up with questions about whether an apology was due to club’s fans or if this was the right time to sell the club, but Glazer gave no sign of even hearing the questions as not even a “no comment” passed from his lips.
The plan to form a European Super League with 11 other clubs has made the relationship with the fans even more toxic. Avram Glazer’s brother Joel issued a statement in which he “apologised unreservedly” to supporters following the Super League backlash. But there’s a widespread belief among fans that the Americans are absentee owners who only care about money rather than the heritage or long-term future of the club.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) have published an open letter to co-chairman Joel Glazer, on Monday claiming: “Let’s be very clear that no one wants what happened at Old Trafford yesterday to be a regular event.
“What happened was the culmination of 16 years in which your family’s ownership of the club has driven us into debt and decline, and we have felt ever more side lined and ignored.”
“After 16 years not one member of the Glazer family has ever had so much as a conversation with us, the club’s Supporters’ Trust.”
MUST’s four-point plan calls for the club’s owners to engage in the Government-initiated, fan-led review of football; to appoint independent directors to the board; to end of the two-tier share scheme; and to consult with season ticket holders over any future plans to join another competition such as the European Super League.
The Glazer family are yet to respond to the appeal.