Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MEN IN BLACK HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF THREATS & VIOLENCE
THE attack on the home of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward suggests militant members of Manchester
United’s support believe direct action is required to remove the Glazers from their club.
But there has always been a group of angry young men lurking in the shadows (yesterday’s Mirror Sport, below).
The Manchester Education Committee and sinister splinter group the Men in Black are two elements of United’s support that first emerged when the Glazer family were plotting their controversial leveraged buy-out of the club in the early 2000s.
There were a series of incidents before the takeover was completed in May 2005.
These included the release of a statement early in the same year warning then-chief executive David Gill that supporting the leveraged buy-out would be viewed as “an act of treachery”.
When the takeover was complete, the debt-free club was instantly plunged £700million into the red. A people carrier transporting three of the Glazer brothers to Old Trafford was attacked outside the stadium later that summer.
That prompted Joel Glazer to break the family’s silence for the first and only time to tell MUTV viewers they could be trusted to run the club properly and maintain United’s success.
Over the next eight years, Sir Alex Ferguson’s brilliance delivered another five Premier League titles and the Champions League. But fan protests continued as the Glazers began plundering £1.3billion from the Old Trafford coffers to meet debt repayments and pay themselves dividends.
Aggressive elements began to re-emerge after it became clear rivals Manchester City were about to become a major force in the Premier League.
In 2008, Rio Ferdinand was confronted at his Cheshire mansion by balaclava-wearing members of the MIB because he had been stalling on a new contract.
Two years later, when Wayne Rooney seemed destined for the Etihad after United refused to meet his £300,000-a-week wage demands, they paid another visit to Cheshire but were dispersed by police.
It recent years, it seemed as though the physical threat to those associated with the Glazers had been diluted.
But after seven years without a title, and with United not even able to boast they have the best team in their own city, it appears the Men in Black are back.