Disgraceful fans, negligent club bring shame on the game
It was another sad day for Manchester United. Two weeks to the day that the plans for a badly thought out, badly organised and just plain bad European Super League were announced the club scored another damaging own goal.
Allowing protesting fans to not only breach security but get into the stadium and onto the pitch was shocking – and not least because United and Greater Manchester Police were forewarned as to the scale of the anti-Glazer protest.
It was announced and planned for more than a week ago and even commented on by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. So everyone should have been aware that feelings were running high and, if not, that is just a sign of yet more negligence.
United should have known what to expect; they should have been ready but, instead, the club heaped yet more embarrassment on itself with another shambolic failure. Once again it is guilty of ignorance.
Thousands of fans protested against the Glazers ownership – which is far from ideal in these Covid times but is completely understandable. It is their right especially given they have, over the past two decades, exhausted every other avenue to express their desire for a change of ownership.
Good luck to them if they can finally force that and the Glazers have certainly shown how unsuitable they are to be custodians of such a great club. If the Americans have any feeling for United they should seek a buyer to end their ownership.
To force the game to be postponed is unprecedented and will certainly be noticed around the world. It showed that direct action can have a dramatic effect although surely we cannot ever regard getting a game called off because of safety fears as a positive thing. It is possible to condemn both the Glazers and the way the protest developed.
What is not the right of the fans is to go onto the pitch, to clash with the police, to cause damage and to apparently try and force their way into the dressing rooms.
Whatever the Glazers have done, however understandable the anger, it does not legitimise that kind of behaviour. There is a sense of pent-up anger and frustration and the desperation to try and effect change. But that does not excuse the actions even if some apologists came out in force afterwards, brushing over aspects of the protest that went too far.
The demonstration needed to pass off without disorder or violence but sadly that did not happen while no-one will hold their breathe in hoping it makes a difference to the usually indifferent Glazers.
Yes, the fans are angry but that does not give them the right to act like they did. Where was the concern for the Old Trafford staff or the police in their actions?
In the aftermath of this debacle questions will be asked as to how they actually forced their way inside and even if there had been any collusion because it seems extremely strange that protestors were able to make their way onto the pitch and knew how to do so.
Beyond that is the simple fact that given its geography Old Trafford should be one of the easiest Premier League stadia to secure. It is not in a residential area, it does not have tight streets around it, there are large car parks and land that can easily be cordoned off to make sure protestors can be kept at a safe distance from the stadium itself. It would cause minimal disruption to do so. Security needed to be far better.
For the Premier League it is embarrassing to have such a high-profile fixture postponed in this way although there will be little sympathy for United and, it should not be forgotten, their fellow founding member of the ESL’s ‘dirty dozen’, Liverpool. At least it was two of the guilty clubs who were affected and United should be punished by the Premier League for the postponement.
The shame belongs to United in what is the latest and most damaging security breach to affect the club which – at the very least – is guilty of complacency and a lack of sensitivity and foresight. But, then again, that is in keeping with its greedy, uncaring backing of the now defunct ESL. The club brought this upon itself.