Glazer’s words are empty
THE scenes of violence and vandalism at Old Trafford last Sunday can never be condoned and they weakened the case of the protesters who caused Manchester United’s game with Liverpool to be postponed. But within that context, the instinct of some broadcasters to line up behind the establishment was disappointingly, if predictably, supine.
It was only a few days earlier when six of the club owners in this country, including the Glazers, were trying to destroy our game by joining the European Super League. There was only one group of people to blame for instigating what happened at Old Trafford last Sunday and it was not United fans, nor was it Gary Neville: it was the Glazer family.
So forgive me if I suggest that football fans everywhere should treat with the utmost suspicion Friday’s letter from Joel Glazer to the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust. If you believe any of it, you are even more naive and gullible than me and I wasted too much time wanting to think the best of the Liverpool owners, in particular. The letter from Joel Glazer means nothing. It talks about United and the Glazers wanting to respect their ‘values and traditions’. Really? Like they respected the club’s values and traditions when they tried to destroy the European competition on which so much of United’s history and English football culture is based? That was only last month and suddenly we’re being asked to think they’ve now seen the light?
It is a public relations exercise. Nothing more. It’s a cynical attempt to soothe public anger before the Government review into English football and the European Super League affair reaches its conclusions. It is a transparent ploy to try to take the sting out of the new rules that may be imposed on them if an independent regulator is given wider responsibility for the game.
They’re not interested in dialogue. English football should press ahead with implementing meaningful reforms that will stop people like the Glazers from trying to betray English football again and, until then, the letter should be treated with the disdain it deserves.