Fans hope to enlist the support of Sir Alex Ferguson to help
drive the Glazers out of Manchester United ownership. Photograph:
Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images
Manchester United supporters fighting
the Glazer family's ownership of the club are contemplating asking
Sir Alex Ferguson to make the ultimate sacrifice and resign in
protest.
The idea was put forward at a specially convened meeting of
fans' groups to determine an action plan to drive out the Glazers.
The Manchester United Supporters' Trust, which arranged the meeting
before Saturday's 3-0 defeat of Burnley, are also exploring the
possibility of asking Eric Cantona to act as their figurehead, and
plans are being put in place for a protest march before the
Champions League tie against Milan on 10 March.
More than 300 fans attended the talks and Johnny Flacks, a
founding member and former chairman of the Independent Manchester
United Supporters' Association, proposed a letter should be written
to Ferguson asking him to step down as manager as manager.
"This is not intended as an Alex Ferguson rant," Flacks said
yesterday. "But he claims to be a socialist, a former shop steward
and a man of the people, so he must be horrified by what is going
on. It would work only if thousands of people sent a copy of this
letter to Ferguson letting him know that our fear, if the Glazers
stay in control, is that his legacy is going to be destroyed. We
wouldn't want that and I don't think he would either."
The fans' meeting was followed by sustained anti-Glazer
chanting at Old Trafford during the Burnley game and stewards
confiscated a large banner that was briefly unfurled at the
Stretford End and read: "Love United, hate Glazer".
Ferguson has always defended the Glazers since the Florida-based
family took control of the club, but he had expressed his
misgivings before they moved into power and is now operating under
strict financial constraints. The Glazers have raised the prospect
of
selling and leasing back Old Trafford
and their Carrington training ground and are looking to
borrow £500m in a bond issue, as a partial replacement for the
£700m debts their 2005 takeover has loaded on to the club.
The supporters' groups vehemently opposed the takeover in the
first place and appealed for Ferguson's help then as well, without
any success. Nonetheless, the idea of asking Ferguson to resign
will inevitably provoke widespread opposition and, in some cases,
shock given his importance to the club and his status as the most
successful manager in the business.
"That is the ridiculous scenario," Flacks said. "We are talking
about a manager who has achieved so much for the club and has
created the monster that is Manchester United. But we have to look
at the greater good and at the moment we have the ludicrous
situation where a club that gets over 70,000 supporters is losing
money.
"This would be Ferguson's chance of saying that something had to
be done. He would be looking after the club in the longer term if
it meant the Glazers would sell more quickly. And if he said he was
going to resign, maybe that would also encourage potential buyers
to hurry up."
Flacks has known Ferguson for many years and was so close to him
at one point the United manager would regularly attend IMUSA
meetings and invite him to the old Cliff training ground. "Moving
to Carrington was his baby and he must be horrified that the
Glazers could now be thinking of selling Carrington and then
arranging for it to be leased back," Flacks said. "That would make
Manchester United no better than a non-league club not even owning
a training ground."
The Trust has pointed out that Flacks's comments do not
necessarily represent those of the group as a whole.
A march before the Milan game may involve a concerted effort to
leave the stadium with large expanses of empty seats at kick-off,
with the protestors not entering the stadium until five or 10
minutes later. There will also be a campaign to encourage
season-ticket holders not to renew if the Glazers are still in
charge.
Privately, one member of Ferguson's staff has already expressed
his support but the captain, Gary Neville, has made it clear he
wants no part of it. "We're always very well protected and we never
get involved in the financial side of things There have been talks
and rumours over the years going back to when the Glazers took
over, and even when Michael Knighton nearly took over in the 1980s.
As players we never get involved in those things; our job is purely
on the pitch and we allow people who are paid to do jobs in other
areas of the club to do their job. It's nothing to do with us at
all."