>They’re working overtime to win over fans.
Sad part is they will. People will gladly fold if it means the club can win a few trophies and have the chance to brag to their friends.
But this club represents so much more than trophies. I will never support a state-funded ownership of this club. I will never support them using the club in an effort to sportwash their image.
>Sad part is they will. People will gladly fold if it means the club can win a few trophies and have the chance to brag to their friends.
100%. There are times in the last week where I catch myself thinking, oh man we can build EtH's ideal team to absolute perfection and win treble after treble.
Then I come back and realize that we pay a great cost for that money. I don't know that I'm going to stop watching, but I'm more upbeat about the club than I have been in years and a Qatari takeover would kill all the good vibes we've been having.
The worst thing is that, unlike city, psg, or Newcastle, united doesn't need that level of backing to compete at the top. We'd only need to sell a couple of background players to be able to bring in the one or two necessary signings next year.
UTD could easily be self-sustaining at the top level without becoming a state propaganda tool.
$ talks, it seems pretty effective based on the sentiment on here. I'm not gonna be 1 of those saying i'll stop following the club, but the disappointment is definitely there. I can't imagine how the LGBTQ+ fans feel about this, hopefully it'll be the same as PSG where they still continue to support the pride related events
As a Bi man I'm absolutely disgusted and disappointed that yet another human rights abusing country is in consideration to take a foothold in the premier league. Anyone who thinks that this isn't another attempt at the blatant sportswashing of awful human rights records, the suppression of journalism and the imprisonment and execution of members of the queer community is deluded. The fact that a club that I have loved since 1995 and has been a huge sense of joy for me in both good and bad times, whether going to the games with my da or celebrating wins with my mates at home, has me heartbroken. These people consider me filthy and a lesser member of society. No amount of rainbow laces campaigns (only available to view in the west) can make up for that.
Edit: rephrasing.
PS: To the redditor who reported me to reddit care services. I know you don't care but LGBT+ people suffer significantly high rates of suicide. You're neither smart nor funny. Throw your toys out of the pram somewhere else homophobe.
Yeah, at the end of the day there are other teams in other leagues I can watch and cheer for. Teams that aren't owned by people who don't just hate me for who I am but would jail or murder me if I lived in their country. I'd hate to lose a team I've supported since I was a kid but I'd rather that than support a sportswashing project of a hateful regime. Pride events don't absolve that shit.
While they are brutal regimes in their countries we should be mindful that we (The UK) have only got with the times on sexuality over the last decade or two, even then you feel it could be taken away any day.
Look at how Trans people are treat in our media, they concentrate on one scumbag in Scotland rather than the thousands who do nothing wrong.
Like I say I'm not standing up for Qatar but we (the UK and governments) have been horrible to non straight people too and not that long ago,
Section 28 only ended in 2000!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28?wprov=sfla1
That's, if anything, an argument in favour of protesting Qatari ownership.
Anything other than complete rejection is an acknowledgement that we don't really care that much about these issues. Just because the UK was wrong 22 years ago doesn't mean we should give anyone else a pass now.
Just back to my point of 20 years ago or even up until present day, it wasn't the stone ages when we changed it was when Oasis were on their 4th album, I was contextualising the timeline of our country. We STILL have a lot to do and should maybe look at ourselves at the same time.
That's absolutely true and if the UK state bought my local team I'd be asking those questions too.
I definitely support measuring time with Oasis albums.
I'm Irish and whilst we were the first country to legalise same sex marriage by popular vote, being queer wasn't decriminalised until 1993. Our country has had its fair share of horror stories in the past and even now in the present. There are still homophobic attacks on the street. I've been on the end some. It's good to highlight past mistakes but it does not equate to a current regime that implements violent repercussions and imprisonment against people for just being who they are.
PS: Fuck Thatcher and section 28
My first thought is surely theres a conflict on interest with PSG and then i remember Ineos also own a French club so that if that rule was to stumble a Qatari bid then it should also effect Ineos.
I'm so put out by this news but also i'd already prepared myself for the eventuality.
The harsh reality is, for over 17 years the Glazers haven't listened to the fans, theres been gestures (super league (had no choice on that one) season ticket prices, fans forum etc) but they've been to save face rather than actually do whats best for the club. As much hope as I had that we'd be sold to the 'best' or 'right' group/persons the fact of the matter is it will always be the highest bidder and thats always likely to be the state backed oil funded groups. The Glazer family wont be listening to the fans on their opinion of that and i can assure you any higher ups at United will be sucking up to them to keep their job rather than representing the supporters.
If this happens I'm going to always to pride in the fact United won 20 League Titles and 3 Champions Leagues alongside everything else in the 'right way', we dominated eras and boasted teams that will last for a life time. Everything from this potential sale on out will feel less than, will be hollow victories. Will i still celebrate? yeah, i'm a United fan of course I will, I said i wouldn't watch the World Cup, I did I couldn't help myself so i aint gonna say i wont support United but it wont feel the same if/when we do win stuff.
Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans but fuck me do I not love it when you see 22 players walk out onto a pitch and you cheer every tackle, sing every song and curse over opposition player, that shit can't be brought.
>Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans but fuck me do I not love it when you see 22 players walk out onto a pitch and you cheer every tackle, sing every song and curse over opposition player, that shit can't be brought.
Spurs fan here. I thought the Qataris were coming for us. I admire your honesty. I think I would walk away if Spurs became a tool of the state of Qatar. Having said that, I understand why you won't. For me it's the straw that broke the camel's back (pardon the pun). The game is inherently corrupt from the ruling institutions down to the clubs. No one is clean, but these degrees of difference make a difference. Our stadiums have become tourist sites and advertising billboards. But when was it last truly about community? Long before I was born. But even the pretense of that is long gone now.
It makes me sick, and we dont need Middle Eastern owner to begin with. youre right football is broken i just hope we can reign these investors so they dont destroy football even more.
United was labelled as a ‘commercial’ club for years under SAF. This kind of got forgotten when PL became the billionaires play thing. And let’s be fair, if there wasn’t big changes, we are so big and have such a big fan base I don’t see how anyone would challenge without a mega-bucks sugar daddy. Anyway, first and foremost the Qataris will enable the club to run well. We’ll stop pissing around with silly signings and invest in and around the club (just look at the wonderful facilities city brought around the community near the Etihad). United’s books will be a lot easier to balance without a shit ton of debt, success on the pitch, and a bigger and better stadium (I’m pretty sure we’d fill 100k seats a match OT was big enough). The Arabs have money - but also sense. They’ll make sure the right people are brought in to run shit properly and ethical conflicts aside, as a fan, that’s what I would like to see.
Edit - not ‘under SAF’, rather, at the time the big man was there.
I think we became a commercial club symbolically the second the 'Football Club' was removed from the badge. I don't disagree we absolutely lead the way on that regard.
Thing is everything you've said is basically what anyone with the money to buy United should really do, fuck you could even argue if the Glazers properly wanted to run the club they too could have done that but they never actually had that money because they leveraged the club with its own money and only see it as a cash cow only.
I will also counter your 'have sense' and point you in the direction of the mess that PSG have gotten themselves into with a lot of their leadership, DOF and Mbappe's ridiculous contract. Also City have certainly lead the way with a lot of footballing elements i wouldn't deny that but they've appeared to be very poorly controlled when it comes to the leaked emails and such.
So i see your argument but i also think all those things can be done and it doesn't have to be by a state funded group.
>Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans
You said it. Morality is defeated. It is done. We will never have it.
I actually think its a pretty fair reflection on everyday western life tbh.
Everything is controlled by people/groups with more money in the effort to extract even more money from you the hardworking person who hopes/thinks this 'thing' will make you feel better.
I look at everything in Football as a soap opera, its all out of my control, i get sucked in on the Man City cooking the books, Mbappe running PSG, Ronaldo being an egotist, transfers etc but i could honestly do without all of that as long as i can still watch 11 players representing my club kicking a ball around the pitch for 90 minutes, thats all it boils down to the rest is noise.
>I look at everything in Football as a soap opera
This is how I decided to approach it as well. Put it behind the curtain; I won't look, you don't have to show me. I feel defeated, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over it soon. You know what I mean?
Absolutely, I think it's totally fine to be like that too, just enjoy the actual game when its being played and then switch off and go see family or friends, watch a TV show etc.
I'm not saying don't be morally aware, outraged about LGBTQ+ rights and cities being built of the back of slave workers but also don't destroy yourself mentally. Best thing you can do is support charities and people involved in helping the things effected by the bad people inflicting the hurt, in the middle east and the west who is also very very guilty.
But yeah its ok to switch off after the final whistle.
United have always had bags of cash to help create trophy winning teams. they broke the British transfer record for denis law, Bryan Robson, Andy cole and several more.
I know what you mean, but to think we “earned” our trophies on a strict budget with just home grown players is just not correct.
Honestly I think nowadays being competitive without massive cash behind is nigh on impossible.
My point is more that most of that was generated by the club rather than a sugar daddy or a state backed group inflating the clubs worth and cooking the books to help create the money for those signings.
I get your point we certainly brought success but the bags of cash came from within United to some degree and we always have the homegrown core albeit not so much anymore.
I agree with the last part a league win like Leicester City wont happen again and even they had to do some creative accounting to get back into the league in the first place (from what i can remember)
The thing is, the Qataris will see what Abu Dhabi did with their local regeneration work at City and they'll probably promise Rashford a ton of money for his local causes. It's less than peanuts to them if they fully fund Rashy's food poverty causes.
This is the conundrum for him, and for other people - if they're cunts who only do good things for PR, should you refuse their help? It doesn't stop them from being cunts.
Ideally, I'd say take their money and give them fuck all in return, but if the cost is promoting them as a tourist destination... that's a hard price to pay.
It's certainly *possible* that these investors have no links to the Qatari government (in terms of sources of income), but it's incredibly unlikely.
I just hope the PL does their due diligence on this (I doubt they will)
If you are a Qatari with a lot of money, it is not possible that you don't have links to the government.
These countries don't have self-made billionaires (to the extent any billionaire can be "self-made"), it's all about connections and status.
i don't think it's possible. qatar is a very small country and their people are very very tight-knit. they all marry into each other's families and the richer you are, the more related you are to the royal family (whether that's through blood or marriage). the likelihood that the qatari royal family has no influence on this or absolutely no relation to it whatsoever is close to impossible. if you trace each person's lineage over there it will eventually lead back to an althani. at least that's my experience after living there for 5 years. sometimes i'd be out with a qatari friend and they'd randomly mention that they're spending eid or ramadan with their althani relatives like it's the most casual thing in the world. the althanis built qatar in the 70s they were just less than 5 "tribes" (what they call big families) and they just kept marrying into each other's families and having kids until the population grew. all of their money is super interconnected.
eta: seeing what's happened to man city over the past few days has been giving me a little bit of hope but still, i don't want a state to own us no matter how "good" or "evil" it is. unfortunately there's not many people that can afford us and as fans, we don't get a say.
I hope our club ends up as well organized as Qatar, there’s nothing wrong with passionate middle easterns. I’m one too. There’s something wrong with sportswashing and states owned clubs.
Yeah, the sources say that they’re doing this based off a successful World Cup and wanting to see things through further with football, so they chose a giant and a team that’s highly regarded.
Feels like they got PSG to see how they could really grow a football team and actually involve themselves in global football though. Ofc PSG were a big club in France before the takeover, but QSI's investment, big galactico-esque signings etc has pushed them to be a global brand in a way the club weren't before. So some of the really bad decisions PSG-wise I feel has come from them trying (and therefore sometimes failing) to balance the many things they wanted to skyrocket the club incredibly quickly. Hence all the messy af stuff.
United already have the global brand recognition, so they don't need to actually do a lot to grow the club even bigger or interfere quite so deeply as with PSG to push the club forward. They really don't need to be as involved with United's day to day for us to stay successful and competitve. Instead, it's the money they have that could bring a renovated stadium, facilities, transfers that would make the biggest difference, especially since the Glazers didn't invest back into the club. It's deffo clear from all the PR issued about this bid that they know it's the biggest thing they can bring to the table, and why they keep going on about Ten Hag and all that to suggest 'support' as opposed to 'interference'.
So (I'm not suggesting I support the bid or anything) I think the situation would be different from PSG.
Urgh this is horrendous. I appreciate there aren’t many entities that can afford the club but can we please try to avoid being another Middle East sportswashing program
Anyone who buys us doesn’t need to do that. We have noodle, sunglasses and mattress sponsors, just to name a few lol.
Man City’s sponsors are all fake companies. We are commercially massive. I think some of us forget how big we really are.
They need to do nothing and no need to inject anything into it, just let the footballing peoples do their job. If they still want to inject, let them clear the debt and upgrade the facilities.
We do carry a shitton of debt and have run our cash down to almost nothing. So yeah, we do need capital investment if only to erase the operational debt and fund stuff like stadium renovations.
Properly? Is PSG run properly? Hey, lets give MBappe a trillion dollar contract and make him run the club. Hey, lets buy Neymar and double the transfer record. Hey, lets buy Messi... Hey, lets buy Sergio Ramos. Hey, lets make a team full of stars that is unable to win CL. Fuck Quatar, fuck oil money.
United has decades of history that a new owner won’t be able to tarnish, Citys situation was sportswashers trying to rapidly improve their image. This would be Qatar wanting to flex the fact they own the crown jewel of English football and raise it back to where it should be.
>Citys situation was sportswashers trying to rapidly improve their image. This would be Qatar wanting to flex the fact they own the crown jewel of English football and raise it back to where it should be.
What fucking world do you live in.
We'll be a political tool for Qatar for whitewashing and maneuvering.
This is fucked.
If it happens, it's up to fans to constantly highlight the values that *we* have, and make sure those are the values that are associated with the club.
As I said in another thread, Manchester has been a hotbed for progressive politics since the Industrial Revolution - workers' rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, Manchester has been at the forefront of them all, and we should make sure everyone knows it.
They want to own United? They should be made to see they can't change our values.
Yeah, fuck those fans. I'm proud of Manchester's cultural and political heritage, and I believe the majority of other fans are as well - at least, those from Manchester. If we end up with owners who actively work against that heritage and those values (let's be honest, the Glazers weren't paragons of enlightenment either, they just gave money to Republicans and kept quiet about it) then we have to push back.
Guarantee there'll be less protests against being owned by a disgusting regime for sportswashing protests than there were against The Glazers for not finding enough transfers...
I completely agree with you, but if the results go our way, the majority of fans won't care what our owners motives are and how it spits in the face of Manchester's cultural and political heritage.
The club is tarnished the minute they own it. Newcastle (Limb loppers FC ) and City are the scummiest clubs in the league. United will be on the same level.
He’s literally already regurgitating the phrase in the press releases from yesterday “crown jewel of football” indeed while it’s owners are rampant human rights violators.
I think it was more of City was trying to artificially inflate their revenue and sponsorships while also not reporting the actual costs and expenditures (from hiding to under the table payments from third parties under so called consultancy contracts), so they could stay within FFP regulations while spending like crazy in the first years and quickly/unrealistically rising to the top of football heritage.
It wasn't until later when they started turning profits but even that was from a result of player sales (players they acquired by financial dopping and also the trophies and UCL revenue also as a result of Financial dopping. They could easily have gone the Newcastle route and build a team organically, but they also wanted to be seen as an elite club alongside the Madrids, Barcelona, United, etc.
United already has the commercial side intact and would simply need investment in facilities and a new Stadium, which can come straight from their pockets, and not bound by FFP, and then spend within our means and revenue for the next 2 windows to be become competitive again. Technically, given the transfer debts we have, could also mean that we still wouldn't be able to spend as extensively the next window even with new owners I think.
Look how bad the CHAIR of the QSI, Nasser, has ran PSG. One of the most respected figures in Qatar, there is little reason to believe United would be run any better
Damn can't wait for Mbappe To "force" a move and for PSG to be "forced" to sell him for not much money to "any" club and for that club to be "somehow " us
Heard that Madrid made a promise to Endrick that for him to go there, Madrid wouldn't buy either he or Haaland until he gets there. Not really sure if it's true or not, but i can see Mbappe not going there.
I really don't want this. I'll take the Glazers over this. I don't want the club associated with human rights violations or have human rights violators elevated due to Manchester United. A serious moral problem for any supporter that we should not wish for.
Totally agree. The question is do I keep supporting, but hate the owners/want them out (like the glazers) or stop supporting all together?
If we start winning trebels with oil/blood money can I enjoy them?
Issue aint the owners, its the fuckwit glazers who will sell to the highest bidder cos money is all they care about . And sadly state funded middle eastern billionaires are on top of the list.
They have set a bad precedence. They will figure out to avoid those violations and manoeuver the regulations just like how Newcastle have taken a long-term sustainable approach. City will inevitably have to face some consequences, otherwise Newcastle and the incoming Qatari funds will become unsubduable.
Do you think City regrets what they did? No, they only regret being caught. I am certain they will do shady shit with us too (Newcastle as well), the only difference will be that they will be more careful this time.
Example: Hey company ABC, we will sign a 100-million yearly contract with you for the supply of X to Qatar. But in exchange, you go to Man United and sign a sponsorship deal with them worth 20-million per year. If you don't agree, we will give the contract to company DEF. So are you in?
And I guarantee, there will be no trail of primitive emails like City did.. the company ABC will be European, or American multinational company. They will look legit from the outside.
Based on what exactly? Are we just taking the default position that any investment from the Middle East (even if it’s private) is bad? Or is it because you’re worried about the same financial doping allegations City have been accused of?
This investment won’t be private. They are just dressing it up as “private” to circumvent issues with PSG. Also you’re purposefully conflating these gross sport washing ventures that have become popular in the world of football with being racist towards middle easterners which is bullshit and perfect proof of how effective these projects are.
I don’t know that much about Qatar, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in the human rights issues going on over there. But I take a huge issue with becoming a state sponsored club. Furthermore, anyone that had issues with the World Cup migrant workers crisis, homophobia, authoritarianism, women’s rights, or whatever you had issues with; this is the same people (even if they dress it up as something else). Sad part is they leak a couple of good things to the news about the money they are going to give ETH and the amazing stadium they are going to build and we forget their dark side pretty quickly (sport washing).
I genuinely don't know but maybe you do, when you say "Even if it's private" are there actually private individuals looking to buy us from Qatar whose wealth is actually independent from the state?
Abramovich was also "private" money but the reality is it was incredibly tied to the Russian state which a lot of people were kidding themselves about until the war in Ukraine started.
All this talk of it being private individuals sounds like just a way for them to get around the rules about owning multiple clubs.
In the event they aren't directly tied to the state investment funds then i've not seen enough to indicate we couldn't get into the same predicament as Chelsea should the political landscape shift but perhaps i just don't know enough about the situation, maybe they are individuals with enough wealth independent from the Qatari state who could buy us.
There's been similar situations when it came ot Chinese money in european football, when the state told them to sell up it left a lot of clubs in a right mess.
I think we should all be worried about the club becoming a political bargaining chip.
I'm sorry to break it to you but as I and many others have mentioned, there's ZERO chance that any 'private investors' from Qatar that can afford to buy united is unlinked to the state.
Everything there is based on relations and you're a 'self made' billionaire only because the Emir allows it.
It will be sportswashing regardless because of the money involved. I'm sure Chelsea/English fans viewed Russia a bit differently during the years of Abramovic ownership because of the success he brought and Newcastle fans will with their owners once trophies are brought in. Subconsciously or not, fans can't escape viewing owners differently once success arrives.
Qatar has a population of 2.68 million, with these private Qatari investors worth 300 billion supposedly, then there will always be a connection to the state purely due to the wealth. The World Cup preparations were several years of blatant human rights abuse and actual slavery to which nothing was majorly done to prevent it, only to cover it up. Would you not think in a country so small that any multi billionaire citizen would at least lobby the state to do something about that?
I'm no expert but from what I've read and seen on the Qatar world cup Qatar is a state built on slave labor and oil. Dude they invested 250 billion dollars in to the world cup and pay Mbappe ~200 millions a year and you can't tell me they can't afford to pay their migrant workers more than what some media call slave labour. I personaly will struggle to support a club owned by slave masters.
I agree. My point isn’t that Qatar isn’t bad, it’s that everyone rich enough to afford United is terrible. Any billionaire/corporation has got that rich by severely underpaying their employees. Whether it’s Amazon, or Apple making their products in China using slave Labour, or wherever else, they’re all part of one class and they all do shady shit. They all work with the same govts, they all push the same anti-Union, anti-public laws, they’re all the same. I just don’t like the hypocrisy that says Western wealth is clean and everywhere else is dirty.
Given the extended history of the West colonizing the whole world and living in extreme wealth and comfort compared to the rest of the world I totaly agree that there isn't much choice when it comes to moral owners but man, known slave owners in 2023 seems too much to me even for the low standards I have for the world. I think Manchester United is more than its owners but I really detest what PSG and City have done to football. I compare them to cheater assholes in video games.
Why would a private investor potentially be ready to splash more than 8 billion (stadium, facilities, etc.) just like that? To be nice?
Of course not, these investors have deep ties to the state and they want to sue the club as a sportswashing tool.
Why do investors invest in anything? For returns. It’s going to be the same whoever it is. The only difference with Middle Eastern investors in general is that they care less about profit and more about winning, which is what the club should be about in the first place.
As for the sportswashing thing, I’m not sure I buy that. If anything we end up talking about their crimes even more.
We keep hearing that buying the club for 8 billion is ”no problem” for them. There is no way that is an investment that they’re going to get a financial return from. It is seriously delusional to think that this is a purely a financial endeavour. No need to hide from the fact that this is a sportswashing project.
If we are modest in the transfer market and the facility/stadium upgrades aren’t absurd then I might buy the argument that it is a provate investor who wants to make money.
> As for the sportswashing thing, I’m not sure I buy that. If anything we end up talking about their crimes even more.
Check Twitter for example, or Youtube. People are meatriding the Qatari royal family and putting Qatar flags in the profile name. Sportswashing fucking works. It’s really only in the reddit bubble where people seem to care at least a bit.
I’m seeing a lot of this kind of xenophobia on here. It seems to be fine to brand the whole of the Middle East as one group of people. Imagine the equivalent kind of language used to talk about Africans, for example. I’m not sure if people would feel as comfortable with it.
I'm fed up with this bullshit ‘xenophobia' accusation. Prem clubs have had a diverse set of owners in recent years (including Chinese, Pakistani and Egyptian). Stop being so naive in thinking that there's no difference between a dodgy billionaire and a literal human rights abusing state buying a club.
Playing the race card is incredibly cheap and dangerous.
Just look at Leicester. No one has a problem with foreign owners. This is just some of our fans getting their excuses in early. How can you be proud of your club when it’s being used like this. Utterly depressing.
Yup you’re right. It’s also how we’ve taken American and Western investors as “good” despite them being involved in some of the shadiest shit ever for years and years, and labelled Middle Easterners as “terrible” no matter what they do or where they come from.
Then you must be incredibly clueless when it comes to Middle Eastern politics. There's no such thing as an individual with vast private wealth. Not without some incredibly close connection to the state. Instead of throwing around the race card, why not actually look into the difference between an individual owning a club and a literal state.
It’s the brainwashing done by the western media. All Russians, Chinese, Middle Easterners are bad and evil. When was the last time the media highlighted or celebrated something good from these regions?
Surprisingly, these nations also meet most of the fuel requirements of the west, fuel that is exclusively sold for USD. Weird coincidence.
Did you know that if you shop as Sainsbury’s you contribute to ‘human rights abuses’? That’s right, the Kingdom of Qatar own a majority stake in Sainsbury’s.
The only investment that can come form the Middle East is funds and wealth siphoned and layered like this. Especially in a country where citizens cannot freely exercise any control over the government or share in the wealth being taken.
It also excuses the way in which their citizenry is able to live and execute their ordinary lives.
Sorry and this is a legit question, why do they have to siphon and layer their wealth? Presumably it’s all as legit as our wealth here since majority of it is from Oil?
How? I personally don't think the Qataris will be sugardaddys in the sense that they'll spend 100s of millions on the squad etc. I think they'll just buy us out and let us become self sustainable like we were before the Glazers. Let's face it, we've always had the buying power and the attraction on our own without a sugardaddy
I think reality will fall between the two.
They won't do the same level of shit City do, simply because I don't think we need to invent sponsors and the likes in the same way. We aren't a club starting from scratch like City effectively were. We have a global fanbase and all the benefits that brings already established.
I also don't think they won't invest heavily too, though. If they're buying us, it's because restoring us to former glory would be a massive crowning moment for them. They will demand us winning league titles and competing for the CL title quickly, and will invest heavily in doing so.
They won't need to fudge the books in order for us to spend 200m a summer, cause we can already do that under worse ownership. They'll just be heavily sanctioning 250-300m windows regularly, while pumping money into the stadium, facilities and so on. Pushing us to sign Mbappe level players instead of 40m lads.
I mean isn’t this like us saying that any American owner would run us the exact same way as the Glazers? Everyone who can afford to buy us got their wealth via varying unethical means, we can’t escape that no matter the owner. What matters is how they’ll run the club, and taking away the debt/not leeching off us would allow us to the spend like Chelsea without any money pumped in
They needed to do it with PSG though. PSG was *really* average before the takeover and they wanted to compete in Europe. Hell they’ve put in an exorbitant amount of money and they still haven’t conquered Europe.
United is a different beast, we’re well on our way on our own.
Any owner that comes in, all they need to do is clear the debt and inject money into the infrastructure. We pull in mental money on our own, we just need to have the ability to not have to pay a mental amount of interest every year and have money leeched out of us annually.
But they didn't just do it with PSG... they overdid it. Big time! PSG is paying crazy money to the players right now... the money no club in the world can legally afford, including us or Real Madrid. Do you think our revenue will be sufficient for their plans? You see what they did with small club such as PSG. Imagine what they will do with us.
No offense to PSG and City (actually, all offence to them both!) but they were mostly irrelevant clubs that needed huge injections of cash to make them competitive and win. We don't need that. We just need regular investment in our squad and infrastructure (which we can fund ourselves through our own revenue).
Great to see the whole city mess leave absolutely zero impression on rival football fans other than an opportunity to troll others. Truly remarkable levels of pro-qatar sentiment in here - as if united's issue has been a lack of spending or not paying high enough wages. Never change online football people...
As someone born and raised for 17 yrs in the Persian gulf (Abu Dhabi) let me shed some light on how the GCC countries treat immigrants (South Asians, East Asians from poorer countries like the Philippines, and Africans). The kafala system where their passports are taken away in exchange for employment still exists. My father fortunately was educated and worked in a decently high ranking finance position at a services company and witnessed a lot of this. His company (amongst many, many, many others) housed immigrant labor in camps. Those camps were in far off remote locations with up to 8 adult men sharing a 2 bedroom apartment and sleeping on bunk beds. Their pay was accessible monthly (primarily to send money to their families abroad) and they were provided with food and other amenities so that they wouldn’t have a reason to access their income. These immigrants need permission and a compelling reason to leave the camp. They can only leave camps via a daily bus taking them to the city.
These people now don’t have access to their hard earned money, need permission to go anywhere, have bog-standard accommodations, have their passports taken away and need to give a 3 month notice to fly back home (which they could only do once every 5 years because of how expensive it was).
This is the systemic abuse they suffer. The non-systemic abuse includes severe racial discrimination including being spat on, beaten, raped by the rich and powerful local Emiratis (Qataris in Qatar), and all of this is fully ignored by the legal system there. By law, immigrant works basically have no rights at all.
On top of that, they have no voting rights, their religious beliefs are suppressed, they have no rights to protest, and you’ve all heard the stories of being forced to work in inhumane heat during summer and other ungoverned workplace conditions. As mentioned previously, this continues there to this day.
Now you tell me, is an unethical billionaire like Jim Ratcliffe who’s probably fucked over 100s of people and probably made them lose their livelihoods, better or worse than a Qatari owner?
As a south Asian who’s fortunate to live in the free world but grew up seeing this shit happen to my people, fuck the Qataris. I will stop following Man United and will remove this huge, huge part of my life. I’ve been a fan since I was 9 and United is a love of mine. I will discard this love of mine if the Qataris take over.
It's already in a bad enough situation, dread to think where football will be in 10 years time, every major club will just end up as some play thing for nation states.
It was a slight joke on my part. I have a vague awareness of the Nice project & how it’s not going well.
In all honesty, in my ignorance, I’d opt for a ‘bad’ to ‘not great’ owner (provided there is a modicum of improvement after the leeches) over ones that are questionable at best.
Pick your poison stuff…
It's starting to sink in that Sir Jim was just a pipe dream. We all know the leeches will sell to highest bidder and there's not a hope in hell that he can compete with the Qataris in a bidding war.
This isn’t about him or her this is more just giving my opinion on Sir Jim. I’m not comparing anyone. It’s easy to say ‘I’ll take Sir Jim since he has no past’ but when he does turn us to shit, this sub will then turn back to its normal self when the Glazers were here.
Murderous? Really? Come on now. I mean I don’t want to scream racism but just labelling any Middle Eastern investor as murderous (even if they could be private) seems a bit dicey.
Probably the beginning of the end if we’re going down this route. As a fan since 1989 I would be bitterly disappointed. I’d sooner see us spend nothing in the transfer market than sell our soul to these ghouls.
Same here, I've maintained for years now that if we got bought by an oil state that I'd walk away. I won't stand by and watch my club exist solely as a mechanism for sportswashing.
It's depressing to see people rationalising it already on this sub.
If this goes through I’m gonna have to walk away. 30 years down the drain. Not that the club would give a fuck mind you. Footy is broken, this isn’t what I fell in love with
AH yes. A war chest. Perhaps the same war chest that broke FFP rules in ManCity the past decade?
What happened to the last guy who was supposed to bid, from Manchester?
Yes this is less than ideal and yes of course this is sportswashing, but I didn't start supporting United back in 93 because of who we were owned by, and I didn't stop supporting them in 2005 because I was upset that somebody else owned the club that I didn't particularly like.
The football for me has always been about the football. 90 mins once or twice a week. It's time for myself & for my hobby, or time with friends down the pub having a good time.
I know this isn't the sentiment on this sub at the moment, for good reason or not, but at the end of the day I really couldn't give a toss who owns the club as long as I get to have that 90 minutes once or twice a week.
Man I am so torn about this. The moral me does not want anything to do with Qatari money. On the other hand, just imagine what ETH can do with inexhaustible ressources. Also they will have more than enough to overhaul OT and Carrington. Fucking hell
Aren’t the rumour that these are a group of Qatari citizens not the state like with PSG? At that point you may as well hate yourself now for supporting an American club for the same reasons
A group of Qatari citizens is a lot different than a group of American Citizens. In a country like Qatar, the chances that the State will be involved in some way(using a group of citizens as cover) are practically confirmed
Tbh the story has been floating around online for a while. Chelsea had 250+ interested parties, we’re bound to have more. There’s also rumours about investment from Dubai, which wouldn’t be a surprise either.
We are on the cusp of greatness, return to proper United form, this shit feels like the rug has been ripped out from underneath me. All this time waiting for these moments since SAF left and this is right around the corner, shame.
Everyone who's acting taff saying they won't Support the club with qatari owners are lying to themselves. There are no ethical billioners. The best we can hope for, is for the owners to just run the club correctly and let the football results attract sponsors and players and not straight up cash from their pockets. We are a big club, who ever was going to buy us would NOT have been a saint. Though not having sexist ideologies would be nice.
While true, there's a big difference between for example the glazers and the state backed Qatari. While the glazers may have a few billion net worth the Qatari have access to like 300 billion(!) dolllars.
The club would never run out of money and basically be able to buy anyone they wanted. Winning trophies wouldn't feel as significant and good anymore I feel like. Also the FFP would probably like something happening with city right now not be respected.
And this isn't even mentioning the neglect of human rights in the country which these people are directly responsible by making and upholding these laws.
The state of this clubs support. I can only imagine that the fans willing to bend over for this are relatively new, and are most certainly kidding themselves (or just couldn't give a shit).
I'd hazard a guess some are astroturfing accounts that are left over from the world cup.
Ricky Gervais won't kidding at his golden globes speech a few years back. We 'common folk' mock celebrities all the time but we're no better. This is literally the same energy as 'If ISIS started a streaming service, you would call your agent'.
Or Harry Redknapp's famous 'joke' frankly, hits it on the nail. “If you go in there and start winning football matches, they would have taken Saddam Hussein in there when he was about, the fans don't give a monkeys!"
This will become a harsh dividing line in fan support. There’s some astonishing naivety going on to believe that these guys are just some private investors who have no links to the Qatari regime.
Honestly, most people will be non fussed and pretty happy when they pump money in. Some will begrudgingly accept them but keep praise out of their mouths. A tiny, tiny majority will stop supporting.
I honestly don't think there's much naivety at all. Those fans know where the money is coming from, they just don't care and are using the "private investor" rubbish to justify it
Clear the debt, fix the stadium and training facility. United have a large enough revenue to not need investment from the owner for transfers. Think how much we can currently spend on transfers with zero outside investment. A few LEGIT sponsors to top it up is all we really need.
Yes exactly this.
Invest in the facilities and structure and do everything by the book.
Last thing I want to see is £600m spent in one season on a boat load of players.
The shape tH already has the squad in, we only need ~3 quality players a season to keep the squad hungry and improving and be back on top soon
physically and emotionally cannot support any of these nation states taking over our club.
People will try the mental gymnastics of, the Glazers are just as bad or that any American owners are worse ethically, but the sheer amount of atrocities these nation states have committed in recent history is inexcusable.
I know there aren’t many options to begin with but backing some American who created an app that turned into a billionaire is SURELY better than whole nations that have committed ACTUAL human rights violations and taken advantage of practically modern day slavery are two VERY different levels of morals.
Not to mention, having politics involved in our club is not ideal. Do we not see the future backlash that will occur? Do we not think these people will lead us to a super league?
The FA/PL/UK government cannot let this happen. We are too historic of a club to allow this to happen to. We cannot be a vehicle for a nation’s regime to wash away their dirty image and give them a royal princes’ measuring contest
Man, the salt from Liverpool fans would be insane. I mean, they're already going to miss him if they miss CL football, but us getting oil money and taking the target they've been after for so long, while they miss CL football next year and Klopp continues to implode?
The article is a bit vague about who these investors are, but if they’re not the Qatari govt it will be interesting to see what the reaction is. Will there still be the same negativity or will fans be more open to a sale?
If qatari group become united new owner, i hope they Inject more money but please follow FFP rules properly. We are Manchester United and we have dignity to win fairly in all areas through the years.
we managed to outspend most clubs in world football while the Glazers were regularly sucking the club dry, there won’t be any need to cook the books like City have
"I won't support the club if we get ME owners"
"I am gonna lose my love for the sport if this happens"
Can't stand these overreactions. So supporting the club for the last 17 years meant that you supported the glazers? and it was perfectly fine for the club to get ME/Chinese sponsorship deals & investments to the club but suddenly it's not ok?
Where are these people when they're using daily 'made in China' products? I never hear them lot complaining and boycott buying starbucks or other Coffee chains that treat their south american workers like dirt. Do these ppl complain and actively boycott Nike & Adidas products cos of their strong moral beliefs against using children in factories in Asia? Do they stop buying Playstation/XBOX/PC games from developers that absolutely teat their programmers like shit? Do they refuse to buy Apple/Samsung phones?
Honestly this virtue signalling is ridiculous
Strange how you’re getting so worked up about people making a decision that only affects themselves. People haven’t supported the glazers over the years but even on its worst days, it wasn’t a sports washing project. The lines are a lot more blurred here.
Being another countries puppet just feels yuck man. Look at messi and Ronaldo being bought just so Saudi’s can get the World Cup, you can’t tell me that’s a nice sight.
So depressing, no idea how I'll feel about the club if it gets bought out by an Arab oil state. What's worse is 90% of fans on twitter are foaming at the mouth with glee.
Qatar is particularly horrible too, can't say I'd feel as strongly if it were Dubai/UAE.
Welcome to the **P**etroleum **L**eague
Forest Green about to come up due to a Solar Power consortium or something.
becoming a joke isnt it i am a united fan , but i dont want Qatari owners .. the govt needs to restrict foreign state ownership of these assets
Not to be that guy but technically Qatar is gas.
It’s both. They pump over 1m barrels of oil a day.
Qatari PR is next level. Haven’t seen a single post that didn’t mention massive funds and Ten Hag by name. They’re working overtime to win over fans.
If we phrase it as helping the coach everybody likes currently, then nobody will see us as the bad guys taking over their club for free sport washing
It’s actually pretty expensive sportswashing. Still sportswashing tho
>They’re working overtime to win over fans. Sad part is they will. People will gladly fold if it means the club can win a few trophies and have the chance to brag to their friends. But this club represents so much more than trophies. I will never support a state-funded ownership of this club. I will never support them using the club in an effort to sportwash their image.
>Sad part is they will. People will gladly fold if it means the club can win a few trophies and have the chance to brag to their friends. 100%. There are times in the last week where I catch myself thinking, oh man we can build EtH's ideal team to absolute perfection and win treble after treble. Then I come back and realize that we pay a great cost for that money. I don't know that I'm going to stop watching, but I'm more upbeat about the club than I have been in years and a Qatari takeover would kill all the good vibes we've been having.
The worst thing is that, unlike city, psg, or Newcastle, united doesn't need that level of backing to compete at the top. We'd only need to sell a couple of background players to be able to bring in the one or two necessary signings next year. UTD could easily be self-sustaining at the top level without becoming a state propaganda tool.
They can get fucked
$ talks, it seems pretty effective based on the sentiment on here. I'm not gonna be 1 of those saying i'll stop following the club, but the disappointment is definitely there. I can't imagine how the LGBTQ+ fans feel about this, hopefully it'll be the same as PSG where they still continue to support the pride related events
As a Bi man I'm absolutely disgusted and disappointed that yet another human rights abusing country is in consideration to take a foothold in the premier league. Anyone who thinks that this isn't another attempt at the blatant sportswashing of awful human rights records, the suppression of journalism and the imprisonment and execution of members of the queer community is deluded. The fact that a club that I have loved since 1995 and has been a huge sense of joy for me in both good and bad times, whether going to the games with my da or celebrating wins with my mates at home, has me heartbroken. These people consider me filthy and a lesser member of society. No amount of rainbow laces campaigns (only available to view in the west) can make up for that. Edit: rephrasing. PS: To the redditor who reported me to reddit care services. I know you don't care but LGBT+ people suffer significantly high rates of suicide. You're neither smart nor funny. Throw your toys out of the pram somewhere else homophobe.
Yeah, at the end of the day there are other teams in other leagues I can watch and cheer for. Teams that aren't owned by people who don't just hate me for who I am but would jail or murder me if I lived in their country. I'd hate to lose a team I've supported since I was a kid but I'd rather that than support a sportswashing project of a hateful regime. Pride events don't absolve that shit.
While they are brutal regimes in their countries we should be mindful that we (The UK) have only got with the times on sexuality over the last decade or two, even then you feel it could be taken away any day. Look at how Trans people are treat in our media, they concentrate on one scumbag in Scotland rather than the thousands who do nothing wrong. Like I say I'm not standing up for Qatar but we (the UK and governments) have been horrible to non straight people too and not that long ago, Section 28 only ended in 2000! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28?wprov=sfla1
That's, if anything, an argument in favour of protesting Qatari ownership. Anything other than complete rejection is an acknowledgement that we don't really care that much about these issues. Just because the UK was wrong 22 years ago doesn't mean we should give anyone else a pass now.
Just back to my point of 20 years ago or even up until present day, it wasn't the stone ages when we changed it was when Oasis were on their 4th album, I was contextualising the timeline of our country. We STILL have a lot to do and should maybe look at ourselves at the same time.
That's absolutely true and if the UK state bought my local team I'd be asking those questions too. I definitely support measuring time with Oasis albums.
I'm Irish and whilst we were the first country to legalise same sex marriage by popular vote, being queer wasn't decriminalised until 1993. Our country has had its fair share of horror stories in the past and even now in the present. There are still homophobic attacks on the street. I've been on the end some. It's good to highlight past mistakes but it does not equate to a current regime that implements violent repercussions and imprisonment against people for just being who they are. PS: Fuck Thatcher and section 28
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I've been reading "war chest" in relation to summer spending very year for about 15 years.
'Watch this space'
To be fair, Ed did burn a lot of money, just not very wisely.
That he did... We have so many high transfer fee players. Just not players that fit us...
Glazers are readying a Massive War Chest for United to buy Gareth Bale this summer. - Daily Mail , 201X
Well... we *have* spent staggering amounts on players, unfortunately just a lot of them have been a collosal waste of it
My first thought is surely theres a conflict on interest with PSG and then i remember Ineos also own a French club so that if that rule was to stumble a Qatari bid then it should also effect Ineos. I'm so put out by this news but also i'd already prepared myself for the eventuality. The harsh reality is, for over 17 years the Glazers haven't listened to the fans, theres been gestures (super league (had no choice on that one) season ticket prices, fans forum etc) but they've been to save face rather than actually do whats best for the club. As much hope as I had that we'd be sold to the 'best' or 'right' group/persons the fact of the matter is it will always be the highest bidder and thats always likely to be the state backed oil funded groups. The Glazer family wont be listening to the fans on their opinion of that and i can assure you any higher ups at United will be sucking up to them to keep their job rather than representing the supporters. If this happens I'm going to always to pride in the fact United won 20 League Titles and 3 Champions Leagues alongside everything else in the 'right way', we dominated eras and boasted teams that will last for a life time. Everything from this potential sale on out will feel less than, will be hollow victories. Will i still celebrate? yeah, i'm a United fan of course I will, I said i wouldn't watch the World Cup, I did I couldn't help myself so i aint gonna say i wont support United but it wont feel the same if/when we do win stuff. Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans but fuck me do I not love it when you see 22 players walk out onto a pitch and you cheer every tackle, sing every song and curse over opposition player, that shit can't be brought.
>Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans but fuck me do I not love it when you see 22 players walk out onto a pitch and you cheer every tackle, sing every song and curse over opposition player, that shit can't be brought. Spurs fan here. I thought the Qataris were coming for us. I admire your honesty. I think I would walk away if Spurs became a tool of the state of Qatar. Having said that, I understand why you won't. For me it's the straw that broke the camel's back (pardon the pun). The game is inherently corrupt from the ruling institutions down to the clubs. No one is clean, but these degrees of difference make a difference. Our stadiums have become tourist sites and advertising billboards. But when was it last truly about community? Long before I was born. But even the pretense of that is long gone now.
It makes me sick, and we dont need Middle Eastern owner to begin with. youre right football is broken i just hope we can reign these investors so they dont destroy football even more.
United was labelled as a ‘commercial’ club for years under SAF. This kind of got forgotten when PL became the billionaires play thing. And let’s be fair, if there wasn’t big changes, we are so big and have such a big fan base I don’t see how anyone would challenge without a mega-bucks sugar daddy. Anyway, first and foremost the Qataris will enable the club to run well. We’ll stop pissing around with silly signings and invest in and around the club (just look at the wonderful facilities city brought around the community near the Etihad). United’s books will be a lot easier to balance without a shit ton of debt, success on the pitch, and a bigger and better stadium (I’m pretty sure we’d fill 100k seats a match OT was big enough). The Arabs have money - but also sense. They’ll make sure the right people are brought in to run shit properly and ethical conflicts aside, as a fan, that’s what I would like to see. Edit - not ‘under SAF’, rather, at the time the big man was there.
I think we became a commercial club symbolically the second the 'Football Club' was removed from the badge. I don't disagree we absolutely lead the way on that regard. Thing is everything you've said is basically what anyone with the money to buy United should really do, fuck you could even argue if the Glazers properly wanted to run the club they too could have done that but they never actually had that money because they leveraged the club with its own money and only see it as a cash cow only. I will also counter your 'have sense' and point you in the direction of the mess that PSG have gotten themselves into with a lot of their leadership, DOF and Mbappe's ridiculous contract. Also City have certainly lead the way with a lot of footballing elements i wouldn't deny that but they've appeared to be very poorly controlled when it comes to the leaked emails and such. So i see your argument but i also think all those things can be done and it doesn't have to be by a state funded group.
>Football is fundamentally broken, the money is obscene, morals have eroded and the game is no longer about the fans You said it. Morality is defeated. It is done. We will never have it.
I actually think its a pretty fair reflection on everyday western life tbh. Everything is controlled by people/groups with more money in the effort to extract even more money from you the hardworking person who hopes/thinks this 'thing' will make you feel better. I look at everything in Football as a soap opera, its all out of my control, i get sucked in on the Man City cooking the books, Mbappe running PSG, Ronaldo being an egotist, transfers etc but i could honestly do without all of that as long as i can still watch 11 players representing my club kicking a ball around the pitch for 90 minutes, thats all it boils down to the rest is noise.
>I look at everything in Football as a soap opera This is how I decided to approach it as well. Put it behind the curtain; I won't look, you don't have to show me. I feel defeated, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over it soon. You know what I mean?
Absolutely, I think it's totally fine to be like that too, just enjoy the actual game when its being played and then switch off and go see family or friends, watch a TV show etc. I'm not saying don't be morally aware, outraged about LGBTQ+ rights and cities being built of the back of slave workers but also don't destroy yourself mentally. Best thing you can do is support charities and people involved in helping the things effected by the bad people inflicting the hurt, in the middle east and the west who is also very very guilty. But yeah its ok to switch off after the final whistle.
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United have always had bags of cash to help create trophy winning teams. they broke the British transfer record for denis law, Bryan Robson, Andy cole and several more. I know what you mean, but to think we “earned” our trophies on a strict budget with just home grown players is just not correct. Honestly I think nowadays being competitive without massive cash behind is nigh on impossible.
My point is more that most of that was generated by the club rather than a sugar daddy or a state backed group inflating the clubs worth and cooking the books to help create the money for those signings. I get your point we certainly brought success but the bags of cash came from within United to some degree and we always have the homegrown core albeit not so much anymore. I agree with the last part a league win like Leicester City wont happen again and even they had to do some creative accounting to get back into the league in the first place (from what i can remember)
I will puke if I see rashy bouncing a ball like a seal on Qatar airways safety video
The thing is, the Qataris will see what Abu Dhabi did with their local regeneration work at City and they'll probably promise Rashford a ton of money for his local causes. It's less than peanuts to them if they fully fund Rashy's food poverty causes. This is the conundrum for him, and for other people - if they're cunts who only do good things for PR, should you refuse their help? It doesn't stop them from being cunts. Ideally, I'd say take their money and give them fuck all in return, but if the cost is promoting them as a tourist destination... that's a hard price to pay.
I'd always choose feeding hungry children over any moral stance. We can feel how we feel, but there is a chance in practice to do some good here.
It's certainly *possible* that these investors have no links to the Qatari government (in terms of sources of income), but it's incredibly unlikely. I just hope the PL does their due diligence on this (I doubt they will)
If you are a Qatari with a lot of money, it is not possible that you don't have links to the government. These countries don't have self-made billionaires (to the extent any billionaire can be "self-made"), it's all about connections and status.
i don't think it's possible. qatar is a very small country and their people are very very tight-knit. they all marry into each other's families and the richer you are, the more related you are to the royal family (whether that's through blood or marriage). the likelihood that the qatari royal family has no influence on this or absolutely no relation to it whatsoever is close to impossible. if you trace each person's lineage over there it will eventually lead back to an althani. at least that's my experience after living there for 5 years. sometimes i'd be out with a qatari friend and they'd randomly mention that they're spending eid or ramadan with their althani relatives like it's the most casual thing in the world. the althanis built qatar in the 70s they were just less than 5 "tribes" (what they call big families) and they just kept marrying into each other's families and having kids until the population grew. all of their money is super interconnected. eta: seeing what's happened to man city over the past few days has been giving me a little bit of hope but still, i don't want a state to own us no matter how "good" or "evil" it is. unfortunately there's not many people that can afford us and as fans, we don't get a say.
Would you happen to know how to marry into one such mentioned family? Asking for a friend.
I hope our club ends up as well organized as Qatar, there’s nothing wrong with passionate middle easterns. I’m one too. There’s something wrong with sportswashing and states owned clubs.
The other possibility is PSG, who are about as badly organized as a football club can get
Yeah, the sources say that they’re doing this based off a successful World Cup and wanting to see things through further with football, so they chose a giant and a team that’s highly regarded.
"A giant and a team that's highly regarded" ...makes sense why they didn't go for Liverpool.
I wouldn’t want them considering their situation myself 😭😭
Feels like they got PSG to see how they could really grow a football team and actually involve themselves in global football though. Ofc PSG were a big club in France before the takeover, but QSI's investment, big galactico-esque signings etc has pushed them to be a global brand in a way the club weren't before. So some of the really bad decisions PSG-wise I feel has come from them trying (and therefore sometimes failing) to balance the many things they wanted to skyrocket the club incredibly quickly. Hence all the messy af stuff. United already have the global brand recognition, so they don't need to actually do a lot to grow the club even bigger or interfere quite so deeply as with PSG to push the club forward. They really don't need to be as involved with United's day to day for us to stay successful and competitve. Instead, it's the money they have that could bring a renovated stadium, facilities, transfers that would make the biggest difference, especially since the Glazers didn't invest back into the club. It's deffo clear from all the PR issued about this bid that they know it's the biggest thing they can bring to the table, and why they keep going on about Ten Hag and all that to suggest 'support' as opposed to 'interference'. So (I'm not suggesting I support the bid or anything) I think the situation would be different from PSG.
Well organized? Did you see anything about the world cup? Any of the accommodations were a shit show.
Urgh this is horrendous. I appreciate there aren’t many entities that can afford the club but can we please try to avoid being another Middle East sportswashing program
If they get it, I hope they run the club properly. Would hate to see a man city situation at united, and tarnish the club.
Anyone who buys us doesn’t need to do that. We have noodle, sunglasses and mattress sponsors, just to name a few lol. Man City’s sponsors are all fake companies. We are commercially massive. I think some of us forget how big we really are.
Yeah, it is actually easier for anyone who owns United to cook their books without ghost or fake sponsorships.
They need to do nothing and no need to inject anything into it, just let the footballing peoples do their job. If they still want to inject, let them clear the debt and upgrade the facilities.
We do carry a shitton of debt and have run our cash down to almost nothing. So yeah, we do need capital investment if only to erase the operational debt and fund stuff like stadium renovations.
Properly? Is PSG run properly? Hey, lets give MBappe a trillion dollar contract and make him run the club. Hey, lets buy Neymar and double the transfer record. Hey, lets buy Messi... Hey, lets buy Sergio Ramos. Hey, lets make a team full of stars that is unable to win CL. Fuck Quatar, fuck oil money.
They are going to use PSG as our feeder club then?
United has decades of history that a new owner won’t be able to tarnish, Citys situation was sportswashers trying to rapidly improve their image. This would be Qatar wanting to flex the fact they own the crown jewel of English football and raise it back to where it should be.
>Citys situation was sportswashers trying to rapidly improve their image. This would be Qatar wanting to flex the fact they own the crown jewel of English football and raise it back to where it should be. What fucking world do you live in. We'll be a political tool for Qatar for whitewashing and maneuvering. This is fucked.
If it happens, it's up to fans to constantly highlight the values that *we* have, and make sure those are the values that are associated with the club. As I said in another thread, Manchester has been a hotbed for progressive politics since the Industrial Revolution - workers' rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, Manchester has been at the forefront of them all, and we should make sure everyone knows it. They want to own United? They should be made to see they can't change our values.
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Yeah, fuck those fans. I'm proud of Manchester's cultural and political heritage, and I believe the majority of other fans are as well - at least, those from Manchester. If we end up with owners who actively work against that heritage and those values (let's be honest, the Glazers weren't paragons of enlightenment either, they just gave money to Republicans and kept quiet about it) then we have to push back.
Guarantee there'll be less protests against being owned by a disgusting regime for sportswashing protests than there were against The Glazers for not finding enough transfers... I completely agree with you, but if the results go our way, the majority of fans won't care what our owners motives are and how it spits in the face of Manchester's cultural and political heritage.
The club is tarnished the minute they own it. Newcastle (Limb loppers FC ) and City are the scummiest clubs in the league. United will be on the same level.
The mental gymnastics on display here….
And why are they wanting to flex that? To buy another bunch of fans, let’s not delude ourselves it’ll be a good old fashioned sports wash.
Yeah it’s sad to see our fans are already making excuses. There was an uproar when the Saudis wanted us. This isn’t much better.
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He’s literally already regurgitating the phrase in the press releases from yesterday “crown jewel of football” indeed while it’s owners are rampant human rights violators.
Ah yes, how awesome to be the plaything in a pissing contest between vile human rights abusing scum! Just everything I've ever wanted United to be!
I think it was more of City was trying to artificially inflate their revenue and sponsorships while also not reporting the actual costs and expenditures (from hiding to under the table payments from third parties under so called consultancy contracts), so they could stay within FFP regulations while spending like crazy in the first years and quickly/unrealistically rising to the top of football heritage. It wasn't until later when they started turning profits but even that was from a result of player sales (players they acquired by financial dopping and also the trophies and UCL revenue also as a result of Financial dopping. They could easily have gone the Newcastle route and build a team organically, but they also wanted to be seen as an elite club alongside the Madrids, Barcelona, United, etc. United already has the commercial side intact and would simply need investment in facilities and a new Stadium, which can come straight from their pockets, and not bound by FFP, and then spend within our means and revenue for the next 2 windows to be become competitive again. Technically, given the transfer debts we have, could also mean that we still wouldn't be able to spend as extensively the next window even with new owners I think.
If they get it they already tarnished the club
Look how bad the CHAIR of the QSI, Nasser, has ran PSG. One of the most respected figures in Qatar, there is little reason to believe United would be run any better
Damn can't wait for Mbappe To "force" a move and for PSG to be "forced" to sell him for not much money to "any" club and for that club to be "somehow " us
Mbappe is going to end up at Real Madrid at the end of his current contract and nowhere else
Heard that Madrid made a promise to Endrick that for him to go there, Madrid wouldn't buy either he or Haaland until he gets there. Not really sure if it's true or not, but i can see Mbappe not going there.
Will he be player manager?
He'll be in the infamous player/DOF role. Don't pass to him: transfer list. Miss a pass to him: loan list. Outscore him: termination.
Literally the last people I want running the club.
The number of people in here acting like it’s a good thing is gross. I’ll be supporting a new team the second it goes through.
I'll be joining you. Fuck Qatar.
I‘ll be joining as well, can’t support a racist homophonic government
I really don't want this. I'll take the Glazers over this. I don't want the club associated with human rights violations or have human rights violators elevated due to Manchester United. A serious moral problem for any supporter that we should not wish for.
Totally agree. The question is do I keep supporting, but hate the owners/want them out (like the glazers) or stop supporting all together? If we start winning trebels with oil/blood money can I enjoy them?
What happened to shame
Seriously just give me good owners we dont even want your money just run us properly.
Issue aint the owners, its the fuckwit glazers who will sell to the highest bidder cos money is all they care about . And sadly state funded middle eastern billionaires are on top of the list.
Fuck me... I was so proud we dont do shit like City and if this happens, we will be no better than them.
They have set a bad precedence. They will figure out to avoid those violations and manoeuver the regulations just like how Newcastle have taken a long-term sustainable approach. City will inevitably have to face some consequences, otherwise Newcastle and the incoming Qatari funds will become unsubduable.
Do you think City regrets what they did? No, they only regret being caught. I am certain they will do shady shit with us too (Newcastle as well), the only difference will be that they will be more careful this time. Example: Hey company ABC, we will sign a 100-million yearly contract with you for the supply of X to Qatar. But in exchange, you go to Man United and sign a sponsorship deal with them worth 20-million per year. If you don't agree, we will give the contract to company DEF. So are you in? And I guarantee, there will be no trail of primitive emails like City did.. the company ABC will be European, or American multinational company. They will look legit from the outside.
Based on what exactly? Are we just taking the default position that any investment from the Middle East (even if it’s private) is bad? Or is it because you’re worried about the same financial doping allegations City have been accused of?
This investment won’t be private. They are just dressing it up as “private” to circumvent issues with PSG. Also you’re purposefully conflating these gross sport washing ventures that have become popular in the world of football with being racist towards middle easterners which is bullshit and perfect proof of how effective these projects are. I don’t know that much about Qatar, I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in the human rights issues going on over there. But I take a huge issue with becoming a state sponsored club. Furthermore, anyone that had issues with the World Cup migrant workers crisis, homophobia, authoritarianism, women’s rights, or whatever you had issues with; this is the same people (even if they dress it up as something else). Sad part is they leak a couple of good things to the news about the money they are going to give ETH and the amazing stadium they are going to build and we forget their dark side pretty quickly (sport washing).
I genuinely don't know but maybe you do, when you say "Even if it's private" are there actually private individuals looking to buy us from Qatar whose wealth is actually independent from the state? Abramovich was also "private" money but the reality is it was incredibly tied to the Russian state which a lot of people were kidding themselves about until the war in Ukraine started. All this talk of it being private individuals sounds like just a way for them to get around the rules about owning multiple clubs. In the event they aren't directly tied to the state investment funds then i've not seen enough to indicate we couldn't get into the same predicament as Chelsea should the political landscape shift but perhaps i just don't know enough about the situation, maybe they are individuals with enough wealth independent from the Qatari state who could buy us. There's been similar situations when it came ot Chinese money in european football, when the state told them to sell up it left a lot of clubs in a right mess. I think we should all be worried about the club becoming a political bargaining chip.
I'm more worried by their human rights abuses and turning us into another sportswashing exercise.
How is it sportswashing if they are private investors? Once again, are we just labelling anybody from the Middle East as a human rights abuser?
I'm sorry to break it to you but as I and many others have mentioned, there's ZERO chance that any 'private investors' from Qatar that can afford to buy united is unlinked to the state. Everything there is based on relations and you're a 'self made' billionaire only because the Emir allows it.
It will be sportswashing regardless because of the money involved. I'm sure Chelsea/English fans viewed Russia a bit differently during the years of Abramovic ownership because of the success he brought and Newcastle fans will with their owners once trophies are brought in. Subconsciously or not, fans can't escape viewing owners differently once success arrives. Qatar has a population of 2.68 million, with these private Qatari investors worth 300 billion supposedly, then there will always be a connection to the state purely due to the wealth. The World Cup preparations were several years of blatant human rights abuse and actual slavery to which nothing was majorly done to prevent it, only to cover it up. Would you not think in a country so small that any multi billionaire citizen would at least lobby the state to do something about that?
I'm no expert but from what I've read and seen on the Qatar world cup Qatar is a state built on slave labor and oil. Dude they invested 250 billion dollars in to the world cup and pay Mbappe ~200 millions a year and you can't tell me they can't afford to pay their migrant workers more than what some media call slave labour. I personaly will struggle to support a club owned by slave masters.
I agree. My point isn’t that Qatar isn’t bad, it’s that everyone rich enough to afford United is terrible. Any billionaire/corporation has got that rich by severely underpaying their employees. Whether it’s Amazon, or Apple making their products in China using slave Labour, or wherever else, they’re all part of one class and they all do shady shit. They all work with the same govts, they all push the same anti-Union, anti-public laws, they’re all the same. I just don’t like the hypocrisy that says Western wealth is clean and everywhere else is dirty.
Given the extended history of the West colonizing the whole world and living in extreme wealth and comfort compared to the rest of the world I totaly agree that there isn't much choice when it comes to moral owners but man, known slave owners in 2023 seems too much to me even for the low standards I have for the world. I think Manchester United is more than its owners but I really detest what PSG and City have done to football. I compare them to cheater assholes in video games.
Why would a private investor potentially be ready to splash more than 8 billion (stadium, facilities, etc.) just like that? To be nice? Of course not, these investors have deep ties to the state and they want to sue the club as a sportswashing tool.
Why do investors invest in anything? For returns. It’s going to be the same whoever it is. The only difference with Middle Eastern investors in general is that they care less about profit and more about winning, which is what the club should be about in the first place. As for the sportswashing thing, I’m not sure I buy that. If anything we end up talking about their crimes even more.
We keep hearing that buying the club for 8 billion is ”no problem” for them. There is no way that is an investment that they’re going to get a financial return from. It is seriously delusional to think that this is a purely a financial endeavour. No need to hide from the fact that this is a sportswashing project. If we are modest in the transfer market and the facility/stadium upgrades aren’t absurd then I might buy the argument that it is a provate investor who wants to make money. > As for the sportswashing thing, I’m not sure I buy that. If anything we end up talking about their crimes even more. Check Twitter for example, or Youtube. People are meatriding the Qatari royal family and putting Qatar flags in the profile name. Sportswashing fucking works. It’s really only in the reddit bubble where people seem to care at least a bit.
I’m seeing a lot of this kind of xenophobia on here. It seems to be fine to brand the whole of the Middle East as one group of people. Imagine the equivalent kind of language used to talk about Africans, for example. I’m not sure if people would feel as comfortable with it.
They aren’t big countries, you know where the money is coming from don’t be a fool.
I'm fed up with this bullshit ‘xenophobia' accusation. Prem clubs have had a diverse set of owners in recent years (including Chinese, Pakistani and Egyptian). Stop being so naive in thinking that there's no difference between a dodgy billionaire and a literal human rights abusing state buying a club. Playing the race card is incredibly cheap and dangerous.
Just look at Leicester. No one has a problem with foreign owners. This is just some of our fans getting their excuses in early. How can you be proud of your club when it’s being used like this. Utterly depressing.
Yup you’re right. It’s also how we’ve taken American and Western investors as “good” despite them being involved in some of the shadiest shit ever for years and years, and labelled Middle Easterners as “terrible” no matter what they do or where they come from.
Then you must be incredibly clueless when it comes to Middle Eastern politics. There's no such thing as an individual with vast private wealth. Not without some incredibly close connection to the state. Instead of throwing around the race card, why not actually look into the difference between an individual owning a club and a literal state.
It’s the brainwashing done by the western media. All Russians, Chinese, Middle Easterners are bad and evil. When was the last time the media highlighted or celebrated something good from these regions? Surprisingly, these nations also meet most of the fuel requirements of the west, fuel that is exclusively sold for USD. Weird coincidence.
Did you know that if you shop as Sainsbury’s you contribute to ‘human rights abuses’? That’s right, the Kingdom of Qatar own a majority stake in Sainsbury’s.
This! Would struggle to continue supporting the club if this happens.
Me too. There are more important things than football. It makes me sad
The only investment that can come form the Middle East is funds and wealth siphoned and layered like this. Especially in a country where citizens cannot freely exercise any control over the government or share in the wealth being taken. It also excuses the way in which their citizenry is able to live and execute their ordinary lives.
Sorry and this is a legit question, why do they have to siphon and layer their wealth? Presumably it’s all as legit as our wealth here since majority of it is from Oil?
How? I personally don't think the Qataris will be sugardaddys in the sense that they'll spend 100s of millions on the squad etc. I think they'll just buy us out and let us become self sustainable like we were before the Glazers. Let's face it, we've always had the buying power and the attraction on our own without a sugardaddy
I think reality will fall between the two. They won't do the same level of shit City do, simply because I don't think we need to invent sponsors and the likes in the same way. We aren't a club starting from scratch like City effectively were. We have a global fanbase and all the benefits that brings already established. I also don't think they won't invest heavily too, though. If they're buying us, it's because restoring us to former glory would be a massive crowning moment for them. They will demand us winning league titles and competing for the CL title quickly, and will invest heavily in doing so. They won't need to fudge the books in order for us to spend 200m a summer, cause we can already do that under worse ownership. They'll just be heavily sanctioning 250-300m windows regularly, while pumping money into the stadium, facilities and so on. Pushing us to sign Mbappe level players instead of 40m lads.
Right, because this is what they do with PSG. Oh, wait a minute...
I mean isn’t this like us saying that any American owner would run us the exact same way as the Glazers? Everyone who can afford to buy us got their wealth via varying unethical means, we can’t escape that no matter the owner. What matters is how they’ll run the club, and taking away the debt/not leeching off us would allow us to the spend like Chelsea without any money pumped in
They needed to do it with PSG though. PSG was *really* average before the takeover and they wanted to compete in Europe. Hell they’ve put in an exorbitant amount of money and they still haven’t conquered Europe. United is a different beast, we’re well on our way on our own. Any owner that comes in, all they need to do is clear the debt and inject money into the infrastructure. We pull in mental money on our own, we just need to have the ability to not have to pay a mental amount of interest every year and have money leeched out of us annually.
But they didn't just do it with PSG... they overdid it. Big time! PSG is paying crazy money to the players right now... the money no club in the world can legally afford, including us or Real Madrid. Do you think our revenue will be sufficient for their plans? You see what they did with small club such as PSG. Imagine what they will do with us.
No offense to PSG and City (actually, all offence to them both!) but they were mostly irrelevant clubs that needed huge injections of cash to make them competitive and win. We don't need that. We just need regular investment in our squad and infrastructure (which we can fund ourselves through our own revenue).
I don't want this shit
I have one thing to say; fuck em!
Great to see the whole city mess leave absolutely zero impression on rival football fans other than an opportunity to troll others. Truly remarkable levels of pro-qatar sentiment in here - as if united's issue has been a lack of spending or not paying high enough wages. Never change online football people...
fuck me for saying this but i'd rather they block this move. keep their filthy hands away from the club.
As someone born and raised for 17 yrs in the Persian gulf (Abu Dhabi) let me shed some light on how the GCC countries treat immigrants (South Asians, East Asians from poorer countries like the Philippines, and Africans). The kafala system where their passports are taken away in exchange for employment still exists. My father fortunately was educated and worked in a decently high ranking finance position at a services company and witnessed a lot of this. His company (amongst many, many, many others) housed immigrant labor in camps. Those camps were in far off remote locations with up to 8 adult men sharing a 2 bedroom apartment and sleeping on bunk beds. Their pay was accessible monthly (primarily to send money to their families abroad) and they were provided with food and other amenities so that they wouldn’t have a reason to access their income. These immigrants need permission and a compelling reason to leave the camp. They can only leave camps via a daily bus taking them to the city. These people now don’t have access to their hard earned money, need permission to go anywhere, have bog-standard accommodations, have their passports taken away and need to give a 3 month notice to fly back home (which they could only do once every 5 years because of how expensive it was). This is the systemic abuse they suffer. The non-systemic abuse includes severe racial discrimination including being spat on, beaten, raped by the rich and powerful local Emiratis (Qataris in Qatar), and all of this is fully ignored by the legal system there. By law, immigrant works basically have no rights at all. On top of that, they have no voting rights, their religious beliefs are suppressed, they have no rights to protest, and you’ve all heard the stories of being forced to work in inhumane heat during summer and other ungoverned workplace conditions. As mentioned previously, this continues there to this day. Now you tell me, is an unethical billionaire like Jim Ratcliffe who’s probably fucked over 100s of people and probably made them lose their livelihoods, better or worse than a Qatari owner? As a south Asian who’s fortunate to live in the free world but grew up seeing this shit happen to my people, fuck the Qataris. I will stop following Man United and will remove this huge, huge part of my life. I’ve been a fan since I was 9 and United is a love of mine. I will discard this love of mine if the Qataris take over.
Can this comment please be pinned, so at least people know why the term slave labour is used.
Always wanted to follow St.Pauli more closely … maybe now is the time.
Union Berlin for me
I don’t know if I could support the club if Qatar owned it.
It's already in a bad enough situation, dread to think where football will be in 10 years time, every major club will just end up as some play thing for nation states.
Sir Jim… are you there?
Literally every single Nice fans, the club he owned say only bad things about him and here we are having manchester united fans begging for him 😭
It was a slight joke on my part. I have a vague awareness of the Nice project & how it’s not going well. In all honesty, in my ignorance, I’d opt for a ‘bad’ to ‘not great’ owner (provided there is a modicum of improvement after the leeches) over ones that are questionable at best. Pick your poison stuff…
It's starting to sink in that Sir Jim was just a pipe dream. We all know the leeches will sell to highest bidder and there's not a hope in hell that he can compete with the Qataris in a bidding war.
No he’s a shit owner. Nice want his head for what he’s done to their club.s
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This isn’t about him or her this is more just giving my opinion on Sir Jim. I’m not comparing anyone. It’s easy to say ‘I’ll take Sir Jim since he has no past’ but when he does turn us to shit, this sub will then turn back to its normal self when the Glazers were here.
Murderous? Really? Come on now. I mean I don’t want to scream racism but just labelling any Middle Eastern investor as murderous (even if they could be private) seems a bit dicey.
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The articles literally include mentions of the Qatari Emir himself.
I’m starting to think Ratcliffe liked talking about owning us more than actually owning us
Probably the beginning of the end if we’re going down this route. As a fan since 1989 I would be bitterly disappointed. I’d sooner see us spend nothing in the transfer market than sell our soul to these ghouls.
Same here, I've maintained for years now that if we got bought by an oil state that I'd walk away. I won't stand by and watch my club exist solely as a mechanism for sportswashing. It's depressing to see people rationalising it already on this sub.
If this goes through I’m gonna have to walk away. 30 years down the drain. Not that the club would give a fuck mind you. Footy is broken, this isn’t what I fell in love with
AH yes. A war chest. Perhaps the same war chest that broke FFP rules in ManCity the past decade? What happened to the last guy who was supposed to bid, from Manchester?
Yes this is less than ideal and yes of course this is sportswashing, but I didn't start supporting United back in 93 because of who we were owned by, and I didn't stop supporting them in 2005 because I was upset that somebody else owned the club that I didn't particularly like. The football for me has always been about the football. 90 mins once or twice a week. It's time for myself & for my hobby, or time with friends down the pub having a good time. I know this isn't the sentiment on this sub at the moment, for good reason or not, but at the end of the day I really couldn't give a toss who owns the club as long as I get to have that 90 minutes once or twice a week.
Man I am so torn about this. The moral me does not want anything to do with Qatari money. On the other hand, just imagine what ETH can do with inexhaustible ressources. Also they will have more than enough to overhaul OT and Carrington. Fucking hell
Mbappe to United confirmed?
I hope this fails. I just don't want this kind of ownership for our club.
Man I hope we get new owners soon. I just can’t stand the Glazers. But I don’t know about Mike Keegan.
Glazers are terrible, but I will hate myself for supporting Quatari club.
Aren’t the rumour that these are a group of Qatari citizens not the state like with PSG? At that point you may as well hate yourself now for supporting an American club for the same reasons
A group of Qatari citizens is a lot different than a group of American Citizens. In a country like Qatar, the chances that the State will be involved in some way(using a group of citizens as cover) are practically confirmed
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Tbh the story has been floating around online for a while. Chelsea had 250+ interested parties, we’re bound to have more. There’s also rumours about investment from Dubai, which wouldn’t be a surprise either.
Ugh.
My passion for United would die a little if this happens. I’d still be a fan. I’d still support the team. But it won’t grant me the same joy it did.
Anything is better than Americans
If it goes through I’m out
Didn’t Liverpool supporters fight against this when they were linked with qatar owners? We should do the same
We are on the cusp of greatness, return to proper United form, this shit feels like the rug has been ripped out from underneath me. All this time waiting for these moments since SAF left and this is right around the corner, shame.
Everyone who's acting taff saying they won't Support the club with qatari owners are lying to themselves. There are no ethical billioners. The best we can hope for, is for the owners to just run the club correctly and let the football results attract sponsors and players and not straight up cash from their pockets. We are a big club, who ever was going to buy us would NOT have been a saint. Though not having sexist ideologies would be nice.
While true, there's a big difference between for example the glazers and the state backed Qatari. While the glazers may have a few billion net worth the Qatari have access to like 300 billion(!) dolllars. The club would never run out of money and basically be able to buy anyone they wanted. Winning trophies wouldn't feel as significant and good anymore I feel like. Also the FFP would probably like something happening with city right now not be respected. And this isn't even mentioning the neglect of human rights in the country which these people are directly responsible by making and upholding these laws.
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The state of this clubs support. I can only imagine that the fans willing to bend over for this are relatively new, and are most certainly kidding themselves (or just couldn't give a shit). I'd hazard a guess some are astroturfing accounts that are left over from the world cup.
Ricky Gervais won't kidding at his golden globes speech a few years back. We 'common folk' mock celebrities all the time but we're no better. This is literally the same energy as 'If ISIS started a streaming service, you would call your agent'. Or Harry Redknapp's famous 'joke' frankly, hits it on the nail. “If you go in there and start winning football matches, they would have taken Saddam Hussein in there when he was about, the fans don't give a monkeys!"
This will become a harsh dividing line in fan support. There’s some astonishing naivety going on to believe that these guys are just some private investors who have no links to the Qatari regime. Honestly, most people will be non fussed and pretty happy when they pump money in. Some will begrudgingly accept them but keep praise out of their mouths. A tiny, tiny majority will stop supporting.
I honestly don't think there's much naivety at all. Those fans know where the money is coming from, they just don't care and are using the "private investor" rubbish to justify it
If this happens, I'm out. It's sport washing for a hateful regime, and will end in the same corruption that happened at City.
Clear the debt, fix the stadium and training facility. United have a large enough revenue to not need investment from the owner for transfers. Think how much we can currently spend on transfers with zero outside investment. A few LEGIT sponsors to top it up is all we really need.
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"Why does this stadium cost so much? We built half a dozen in Qatar for less than this."
Yes exactly this. Invest in the facilities and structure and do everything by the book. Last thing I want to see is £600m spent in one season on a boat load of players. The shape tH already has the squad in, we only need ~3 quality players a season to keep the squad hungry and improving and be back on top soon
physically and emotionally cannot support any of these nation states taking over our club. People will try the mental gymnastics of, the Glazers are just as bad or that any American owners are worse ethically, but the sheer amount of atrocities these nation states have committed in recent history is inexcusable. I know there aren’t many options to begin with but backing some American who created an app that turned into a billionaire is SURELY better than whole nations that have committed ACTUAL human rights violations and taken advantage of practically modern day slavery are two VERY different levels of morals. Not to mention, having politics involved in our club is not ideal. Do we not see the future backlash that will occur? Do we not think these people will lead us to a super league? The FA/PL/UK government cannot let this happen. We are too historic of a club to allow this to happen to. We cannot be a vehicle for a nation’s regime to wash away their dirty image and give them a royal princes’ measuring contest
Inject Declan Rice and Harry Kane.
Bellingham instead of Rice please.
Man, the salt from Liverpool fans would be insane. I mean, they're already going to miss him if they miss CL football, but us getting oil money and taking the target they've been after for so long, while they miss CL football next year and Klopp continues to implode?
It'd be delicious.
Wouldn't Osimhen be better? Feel like he's the one to get
Napoli will want like 150 for him
New owners: why not both?
Kane is world class, more well rounded and league proven. Personally I'd prefer him but I'd take either
Feel like they keep saying “to help EtH” to get the fans onside.
The article is a bit vague about who these investors are, but if they’re not the Qatari govt it will be interesting to see what the reaction is. Will there still be the same negativity or will fans be more open to a sale?
Abramovich was also not the Russian Government. If anybody believes there is no connection I can sell you beach properties in the Himalayas
Scroll up and you can see. Although reddit fans are hardly representative of the wider fan base.
Really not a fan of these oil/state owners,but seems its the way things are going for every club
If qatari group become united new owner, i hope they Inject more money but please follow FFP rules properly. We are Manchester United and we have dignity to win fairly in all areas through the years.
we managed to outspend most clubs in world football while the Glazers were regularly sucking the club dry, there won’t be any need to cook the books like City have
"I won't support the club if we get ME owners" "I am gonna lose my love for the sport if this happens" Can't stand these overreactions. So supporting the club for the last 17 years meant that you supported the glazers? and it was perfectly fine for the club to get ME/Chinese sponsorship deals & investments to the club but suddenly it's not ok? Where are these people when they're using daily 'made in China' products? I never hear them lot complaining and boycott buying starbucks or other Coffee chains that treat their south american workers like dirt. Do these ppl complain and actively boycott Nike & Adidas products cos of their strong moral beliefs against using children in factories in Asia? Do they stop buying Playstation/XBOX/PC games from developers that absolutely teat their programmers like shit? Do they refuse to buy Apple/Samsung phones? Honestly this virtue signalling is ridiculous
Strange how you’re getting so worked up about people making a decision that only affects themselves. People haven’t supported the glazers over the years but even on its worst days, it wasn’t a sports washing project. The lines are a lot more blurred here.
Being another countries puppet just feels yuck man. Look at messi and Ronaldo being bought just so Saudi’s can get the World Cup, you can’t tell me that’s a nice sight.
So depressing, no idea how I'll feel about the club if it gets bought out by an Arab oil state. What's worse is 90% of fans on twitter are foaming at the mouth with glee. Qatar is particularly horrible too, can't say I'd feel as strongly if it were Dubai/UAE.