Two stories coming out of Manchester today couldn’t be more opposite. The blue half will garner an incredible amount of respect and praise for its plans to spend an obscene amount of money to redevelop the area around the City of Manchester Stadium. The red half, meanwhile, is using some heavy-handed tactics to try to suppress the rising tide of interest and support for the green and gold brigade and their support of the Red Knights campaign to take over Manchester United.
Here are the two stories in more detail with links to the source articles from The Guardian:
- Manchester United comes down hard on green and gold support. Several weeks ago we led with the story about Manchester United banning its players from using social media sites. Now it seems that the club has banned its players from from speaking about the anti-Glazer movement. To make matters worse, United has been heavy-handed with its tactics in ensuring that the green and gold brigade don’t get more publicity. According to The Guardian, the club removed an audience member from the MUTV studio because he was wearing a green and gold scarf. The club also sacked a steward because he returned a green and gold banner to supporters after it was confiscated, and the club has forbidden the in-house TV station, MUTV, from referring to the rebellion and edited questions about it from broadcasts of Ferguson’s press conferences.
- Manchester City is building for the future. Manchester City and Manchester City Council have agreed a £1 billion development deal which will transform the area around the City of Manchester Stadium by building training facilities, a fan zone, practice pitches and more. Plus, City will consider increasing the capacity of the stadium from 48,000 to a larger number yet to be determined.
Manchester United, the club, is obviously fighting back to control the communications and to ensure that they limit the amount of damaging information that can be shared. But it’s the supporters who have the advantage in terms of being able to communicate their feelings about the Glazer ownership of United by wearing the green and gold scarves at home and away matches.
The question of the day is this: If you lived in England and had a chance to go to Old Trafford, would you wear a green and gold scarf or not?
I do and I have. NEXT!
I’ve been wearing around the 3rd kit from 93/94
Wearing green and gold scarves at games gives the financially illiterate populists of Man Utd the advantage? Say what?
They’re at the games… having paid. Who cares what they wear. Yeah, wear green and gold… that will really scare them.
It was hard to ignore what happened during the match against Porto on Wed. The anti Glazer chants and banners were so intense even Martin Tyler had to comment on it, I was honestly waiting for a pitch invasion. The Glazers have to be careful not to go too far with their crackdown on the green and gold brigade as it will give the group more momentum.
brn442, the vocal support and the waving of the scarves were impressive Wednesday night at Old Trafford, but the vast majority of supporters would not participate in a pitch invasion at Old Trafford. Most of the supporter in the ground there are pacifists.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
More hardcore MUFC fans I see. What was the score Vs Porto? I missed that 1.
Yeah but if watched REALLY closely you would have also noticed that United actually played AC Milan NOT Porto! … Granted, it was only a subtle thing that not everyone would necessarily have noticed with all the green and gold, and Beckham’s return, going on, but yes it’s true!
The match was against AC Milan…
And besides, these protesters are supporting the Glazer family buy PAYING THEM FOR THEIR PRODUCT. Effective…
Even if every single person inside Old Trafford, from the paying customers, to the stewards, to David Beckham, were wearing those scarves, the Glazers will not care. When that stadium is empty because they didn’t sell tickets to the match, then the Glazers will sell in a New York minute. They view Manchester United as a money-making opportunity. If they could figure out how to sell green and gold scarves, they would. Free Tibet flags are made in China, after all!
Until the Glazers think that they cannot continue to make money,they will not even consider selling. They do not care about the club except as a money making enterprise.
It’s really interesting in light of the moves that the Glazers made in order to get the Bucs to a SuperBowl. They were so anxious to get control of United, and have since decided they’re just going to bleed the organization of money.
And, it seems, since getting involved on the other side of the pond, they’ve ignored their NFL franchise. The green & gold supporters are making news over here, too. Tampa Bay fans hope the Glazers sell United and start paying more attention to the (American) football team.
What I don’t get is how they think they’re going to get away with pissing off fans like this. Look at the recent history of the Chicago Blackhawks under “Dollar” Bill Wirtz for an example of what can happen to your sports franchise if you spend long enough treating the fans like crap.
if the players are banned from commenting on the protests, i wonder what would happen if Rooney made a comment? would they risk potentially tanking the rest of the season and suspend him or even worse, sell him? LUHG
then again, why would the players even care who owns the club, as long as they are still getting paid and winning trophies it’s all wood, right?
it’s also silly that citeh are considering expanding the stadium! they don’t even go, they don’t even gooooooo. what a waste of council tax, they don’t even go!
only time they sell out is when United come.
Why is City’s average attendance 45,419 then you numpty! Is it cos we’re not really here?
Why can Glazers be so thick-skinned? Cracking down on the protests???
If they really have a shame in them, they must give the job back to the steward who got fired. While they are shamelessly taking control of the club with the debt without putting a penny from their pockets, how can they fire someone who is working for the club for years??
Is that a kind of culture they bring to the club? Glazers…out of people who know you, millions of them really HATE you!!!
I keep hearing people saying that the best way of getting the Glazers attention is by not going to the games and therefore taking the gate money away.
The problem with that is most of the people at Old Trafford will season ticket holders and therefore they will have already bought and paid for this ticket in August. As such they are not handing any money over when they walk through the gates at Old Trafford now, they are flashing their season ticket.
So I ask you what would be the point of not going to the game when they are not handing money over anyway?
The only thing they could do is wait until the summer when they are due to pay for the 2010/11 season ticket and not renew it.
i heard the official Glazers suck scarfs are now hot pink and neon green with a thin line a neon orange. everyone should buy those! got to love the americans making money! yes… go Glazers! USA USA USA! And come world cup time look for l. donovan and troops to run the English squad out of the world cup! USA USA!
It’s helpfull and I really like it.I’ll try , thanks anyway… I wish you share some more info on it.
I think this Spam Bot entered a few too many can’d text entries there.
Whoa.. Someone is a fake wayne bridge sucks.. They are trying to make a mockery of the real WayneBridgeSucks. If that was the real WayneBridgeSucks, there would’ve been no comment left like that. The real waynebridge sucks now understands the argument of the united supporters. thanks to the likes of Phillip and David Beckham i now get it.
Yet
One team is winning titles and in the run for the PL Title
The other is continuing (like its history) of being nowhere near the PL Title race
i already have a green and gold scarf. the question in my head is why in the world they ever sold the club to those morons in the first place.
So I ask you what would be the point of not going to the game when they are not handing money over anyway?
Manchester United is the best club that ever will be. be about it!
be a fan or not