Only 4% of United fans support owners while City chiefs are ‘most damaging’ for football

MANCHESTER UNITED’S owners have earnt an approval rating of just four per cent from the club’s fans.

In a survey of more than 10,0000 fans of the 20 Premier League clubs, the Glazers attracted the least support of any set of owners.

The figure of four per cent of fans who felt the Americans were doing a good job was lower even than Mike Ashley’s approval rating among Newcastle supporters.

Only 10.8 per cent of fans approved of Ashley’s reign, with most of those citing his financial prudence. A huge majority felt he was a terrible owner and were happy to see him replaced by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF, last year.

The shockingly low approval for the Glazer family’s near 17 years in control at Old Trafford is a damning assessment. Supporters criticised the owners for taking ‘vast sums’ of money out of the club, poor recruitment of managers and players and their overall strategy.

The verdict comes despite United winning the Champions League, five Premier League titles, a Europa League trophy, an FA Cup and four League Cups during their reign.

They have also set transfer records, signing four of the 17 most expensive players in history — Paul Pogba (for a world record fee ), Harry Maguire (still the world’s most expensive defender), Romelu Lukaku and Jadon Sancho.

After the Glazers and Ashley, Everton’s Farhad Moshiri is the next worst-rated owner with Matthew an approval Benham, rating at Brentford, of just 14 per has cent. the highest approval rating among fans at 98.8 per cent. Club chief executive Jon Varney told Sportsmail: ‘Matthew has been an exemplary owner. He is a committed, lifelong fan of the club — we are prepared to do things differently, taking calculated risks in the hope it will give us an edge.’

Manchester City’s Sheikh Mansour was voted the Premier League owner most damaging to the health of football, gaining almost 32 per cent of votes.

Newcastle’s new owners came second with more than 18 per cent, followed by the Glazers (18 per cent) and Chelsea’s outgoing Roman Abramovich (nearly 13 per cent).

City have won five of the last 10 titles and three of the last four. They have also become the richest club in the world by revenue, with their £571.1million income in 2020-21 leapfrogging Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Liverpool.

City have been mired in financial controversies though during Sheikh Mansour’s reign, including twice being sanctioned by UEFA over Financial Fair Play.

They remain under investigation by the Premier League over undisclosed alleged domestic FFP infringements. That probe is about to enter a fourth year.

To ensure like-for-like comparisons, all spending figures on players and wages

have been adjusted for inflation to 2022 levels.