Club Sale | It’s done!

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But what can you do? Stop supporting them? Football should of never got to this point, but the door has well and truly been smashed open, and there's no going back. It's not a working class game anymore.
Stop supporting is the right option for those who cannot bear having Qataris as owners tbh. At the end of the day it's a matter of what we individually prioritize and everyone's decision is his own
 
Hardly we've literally got swarms of people in here that have decided none of the human rights issues matter. Their money is buying silence because people see its benefit so yeah sportswashing.
I'm not too sure I agree with that. I think it's beyond question that Qatari involvement in football has raised awareness of the ethical issues in their country word wide. Even those who are attempting to rationalise it are more aware of it. Also don't discount the internet debate effect, where people are pushed to more extreme positions in order to defend their reasoning. I think the idea of sportwashing can be conclusively disproved with empirical evidence. Sport as an extention of soft power is slightly different and more likely.
 
They'll do what city have done, but bigger and better for redevelopment. These guys have been having a dick waving battle with how big their yachts are for two decades. Now they are doing it with clubs and cities.
There was an article in, I think The Athletic recently which disputed how much city have actually spent on the local area. A lot of it was done using local council and government money .
 
But what can you do? Stop supporting them? Football should of never got to this point, but the door has well and truly been smashed open, and there's no going back. It's not a working class game anymore.

If I do support them it'll be a tricky one for me. I may be able to watch the matches as a partisan football fan. I honestly don't know. I'm 50 and for large periods of my life football and an obsession with United almost defined me. Off the pitch things like Munich and Best's flaws were woven in. I have to just get a new lens that only sees the games. I don't know to be honest.
 
The idea of sports washing is one of the most ridiculous concepts I've ever heard. Owning a football club, and, no offence to City, PSG or Newcastle, especially a club the size of United, will do the exact opposite of 'sports washing' by drawing a large spotlight onto their country. For a country like Qatar, with dangourous and powerful enemies nearby, drawing that spotlight is part of their motivation, along with diversifying their interests for the day the gas (or oil in other cases) runs out, and gaining the influence and soft power that owning a club with world wide clout like United provides them with.

Nar, there has already been a sizeable shift in United fans feelings to Middle Eastern regimes, the evidence is right here, in this thread. Man City’s ownership is the UK medias darling and all of Newcastle welcomed the Saudis with open arms.

Ridiculous my arse, it works.
 
That's why I find myself detached from things that don't involve on the pitch matters.
People need to accept that the PL sold out a long time ago. More and more 'dodgy' money will be coming into the league.

Pretty much every team is now owned by a Billionaire of some sort, there's already 2 gulf states in the league.

Qatar WILL buy a team, whether it's United, Liverpool or Tottenham. This might be selfish but I'd rather it be us than somebody else.
 
Doesn't the quote form the Qatari bid basically mean the same thing? In my mind "the bid will be completely debt free" just means they won't fund the bid by adding more debt but it doesn't mean they will clear all debt from the club does it?
I thought I read somewhere that’s why the bid is lower so that the debt and costs of infrastructure change are taken into consideration
 
If Qatar buy us then we should become unstoppable right? All that self-sponsorship on top of the billions we already generate.

How do people feel about this? I imagine it will get very boring very quickly...

City, Chelsea and Newcastle will be able to compete on any transfer target we have.

Factor in the likely sales of Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool to super rich owners in the next few years and the PL becomes something of a super league.

Competition will be fierce and about as far away from boring as you can get.
 
Yet a bunch of people thought Chelsea was worth more, and at least 2 think United is.

So yes, United factually is worth much more than your 2.5bn valuation.

United will not be sold for 2.5b for sure. The cost i mentioned is for a billionaire who needs to invest 1-2b more for stadium renovation/rebuild + Glazers debt + squad investment which brings to about 4-4.5b easily.
Anyone overpaying unless it is like Roman/Qatar/UAE who dont worry about making profit, will only affect United finances in performing to the clubs potential in transfermarket.
 
Who buys the club is unavoidable to us as well because we have no control

but look I was saying that I wasn’t as hysterical not that everyone had to be less hysterical

Yeah, sorry. I'm quite torn, but I don't get the fact it has become an aggressive debate. It's such a personal thing.
 
People need to accept that the PL sold out a long time ago.

No they don’t, they can chose to, or they can hope for a difference ownership model and that the likes of City pay for their flouting of FFP.

You can accept if you like, as can anyone else, but for me an Arsenal title will always be worth a million times more than a Manchester City one.
 
With that level of investment people should be fouled and think that it has anything to do with human rights and what some Football fans may or may not think. Whether we are talking about a Qatar, US or Ineos bid, the answer is at the City council and Economy-finance ministry. Keep in mind that the people that interest Qatar or Ineos are already on their sides and have always been.
 
The “no fresh debt” comment is very worrying. So what happens to the existing debt? I’m guessing that stays as a lead weight around the clubs neck?

seems unlikely they would do that

I am sure they can buy debt for cheaper on their own terms, so there isn't much point in keeping it under the Glazer terms

I honestly think the debt is a complete non-issue in regards to Ineos

it just doesn't make any sense for them to buy a 5bn asset and then hamper it's ability to perform by keeping debt loaded onto it, or making it service a debt it obviously can't service properly
 
The idea of sports washing is one of the most ridiculous concepts I've ever heard. Owning a football club, and, no offence to City, PSG or Newcastle, especially a club the size of United, will do the exact opposite of 'sports washing' by drawing a large spotlight onto their country. For a country like Qatar, with dangourous and powerful enemies nearby, drawing that spotlight is part of their motivation, along with diversifying their interests for the day the gas (or oil in other cases) runs out, and gaining the influence and soft power that owning a club with world wide clout like United provides them with.

You don't think Russia benefited politically from the 2018 world up, or the Nazi regime from the 1936 Olympics? Sportswashing is most definitely a thing.

You've even bloody mentioned soft power in your post. That's what sportswashing is about; laundering your reputation through sport whilst up to no good at home, to gain political favour and make allies. You seem to understand it yet dismiss it.
 
Here's the exact same wording from a Telegraph journo:


It's clearly come from the Ratcliffe camp.


It’s Chinese whispers isn’t it? Even there it’s not Jim, but now “Jim’s camp”.

Maybe someone on the camp feels that way, or just wanted to give the journo something that had no actual meaning to it, a soundbite.
 
Ofcourse they will buy through loan, there isn't a capitalistic company in the world that will stump up 5b cash for a football club, it's not the way they operate. And you can be sure a private company will be looking for returns too.
It’s not a sustainable way to own a top level football club unfortunately. The club cannot fund dividend and loan payments. If this is the way you plan to own the club it isn’t the investment for you.

The investment needs to be loan free in the hope of appreciation. An asset that increases in value year on year. United in particular needs a lot of investment in the short term. Stadium and facilities in particular, plus the transfer market to get us to the top.

The investors need to realise this.

Qatar are obviously investing for other motives rather than capital appreciation.
 
Their subscribers which is probably a very low % of actual United fans.

The online polls are massively in favour of Qatar and after Jim’s statement yesterday you’d be mad to want him

fecking paywalled content full of Chelsea fans the daft a holes

Most of the other polls are from our twatter fan base. The lowest of the low when it comes to our fans. When they’re not cheerleading for our new Qatari overlords, they’re racially abusing our players, or hounding journalists with homophobic abuse, the place is an absolute cess pit.
 
The notion we have to tone down our reaction because we need to dress ourselves or drive to work doesn't sit well with me.

Lots of these situations are unavoidable. I know because I try to live as ethically and sustainably as possible and it's fecking hard. And I mean hard. I grow most if my own food when seasons allow and boycott pretty much everything that's possible. And it's fecking tricky. Trickier still with friends and teenagers who understandably don't fully share your ideas. You compromise daily for sanity.

If we are complicit it's unavoidable and shouldn't be a caveat for what we feel is right or wrong. But surely we all agree that a lack of democracy and human rights transgressions are possibly areas where a little hysteria is OK?
The thing is, does any of your or our discomfort over this deal count for anything? People could write millions of posts on the net but the people that matter don't care about those. The only meaningful action anyone could take against this takeover would inevitably be something illegal which any sane person won't or shouldn't do.

In other words, we have no power over what goes on here. We could shout every game about wanting Glazers out but we can't choose their replacement. So as @kouroux said above, the best thing is to detach yourself from off field matters. That's what I do personally. Who buys us, whether Greenwood plays for us etc won't detract me from what our players do on the pitch, because at the end of the day I can only support the players on the pitch as a fan. In this day and age fans have no other power over the running of their club.
 
It’s not a sustainable way to own a top level football club unfortunately. The club cannot fund dividend and loan payments. If this is the way you plan to own the club it isn’t the investment for you.

Tell that to the family about to make as much as 4-5 billion from this top football club.

INEOS have no need to put debt onto the club nor take dividends from the club. Very few owners take dividends from football clubs, it’s all about the long term value.
 
Nar, there has already been a sizeable shift in United fans feelings to Middle Eastern regimes, the evidence is right here, in this thread. Man City’s ownership is the UK medias darling and all of Newcastle welcomed the Saudis with open arms.

Ridiculous my arse, it works.

There are a lot more people on earth who aren't United fans than who are, and unless you can provide evidence of posters who have previous condemned Qatari human rights abuses who are now excusing them the posts in this thread are evidence of nothing more than fans who want their club to be successful.
 
SJR has previous told us the following….



Don't know why you posted that video. SJR said If United was for sale, he probably would buy it; Glazers are nicest people and his sport brand is very successful. That's pretty much it
As an United fan, what am I supposed to feel here?
 
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seems unlikely they would do that

I am sure they can buy debt for cheaper on their own terms, so there isn't much point in keeping it under the Glazer terms

I honestly think the debt is a complete non-issue in regards to Ineos

it just doesn't make any sense for them to buy a 5bn asset and then hamper it's ability to perform by keeping debt loaded onto it, or making it service a debt it obviously can't service properly
How on Earth they would buy debt cheaper in their own terms, when the interest rates now are around 5%, while when Glazers restructured the debt it was around 1%. This is a bad time to get debt.
 
There are a lot more people on earth who aren't United fans than who are, and unless you can provide evidence of posters who have previous condemned Qatari human rights abuses who are now excusing them the posts in this thread are evidence of nothing more than fans who want their club to be successful.


Here is SUV on boycotting the Qatar world cup:

I’ll try not to watch it
Feck Qatar

Here is SUV when Qatar might buy United.

Oil me up and sheikh me about
Feck those six street vultures

Here is @crossy1686 deriding people who would accept sportswashing at their club.
It’s the sportswashing people have a problem with, not the running of the club from a business perspective
At the expense of peoples human rights? You're okay with the club being owned by a regime that kills homosexuals and strips women of their rights?

Here is @crossy1686 explaining that the new owners might actually be opposed to human rights in their country.
Isn't everything corporate bullshit? Do you think we would have rainbow laces and shirt number if companies didn't gain value from it? Plus, you've got genuinely no idea that the lads making the bid aren't opposed to the human rights policy in their own country.


Here is @Telsim worried about the deaths of migrants in the world cup.

Some of the takes in this thread are shocking, even for this place.

I'm sure all the dead workers and all the oppressed and the soon-to-be-killed in that part of the world feel much better now that they know Europeans did the same centuries ago.
Here he is less than 100 days later when Qatar might buy Man United
I'll be gutted if it's not Qatar now. I'l be crying into my cornflakes proper. I've already let my dreams go wild in my head about signings and stadium and everything.
 
You know this is going to happen. :lol:

Hey we are using American banks to allow a Chelsea season ticket holder born in london to buy United so that we can bring “Manchester back into Manchester United”:lol:

What the hell that catchphrase even mean? Its like Make America great again catchphrase of Donald Trump
So he was born in London now? Great. What other lies can we make up?
 
How on Earth they would buy debt cheaper in their own terms, when the interest rates now are around 5%, while when Glazers restructured the debt it was around 1%. This is a bad time to get debt.

I didn't know it was 1%. So we only pay 10m per year in interest?
 
City, Chelsea and Newcastle will be able to compete on any transfer target we have.

Factor in the likely sales of Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool to super rich owners in the next few years and the PL becomes something of a super league.

Competition will be fierce and about as far away from boring as you can get.
I meant more because we'll suddenly be able to buy anyone we want, and once the muppetry has worn off it'll seem a bit hollow.
 
Here is SUV on boycotting the Qatar world cup:



Here is SUV when Qatar might buy United.



Here is @crossy1686 deriding people who would accept sportswashing at their club.



Here is @crossy1686 explaining that the new owners might actually be opposed to human rights in their country.



Here is @Telsim worried about the deaths of migrants in the world cup.
Trawling the RedCafe archives to point out people's mistakes isn't a great look mate...
 
Who were you hoping was going to bid that would stop you walking away from this club
I know it’s difficult. I’m not iTK or on supporters bodies or anything. I hate the plastic vibe of city though. I don’t want to be a hypocrite
 
Hardly we've literally got swarms of people in here that have decided none of the human rights issues matter. Their money is buying silence because people see its benefit so yeah sportswashing.
Here is SUV on boycotting the Qatar world cup:



Here is SUV when Qatar might buy United.



Here is @crossy1686 deriding people who would accept sportswashing at their club.



Here is @crossy1686 explaining that the new owners might actually be opposed to human rights in their country.



Here is @Telsim worried about the deaths of migrants in the world cup.
Named and shamed.
 
Partnering with ME oil, not a good look.

If we’re looking for good looks in a bidding war for over 4bn, we’ll both be disappointed.

SJR has previous told us the following….



but that’s ignored now because the Athletic quoted some wishy washy source.


Oh wait. So just like the quotes from sourced close to him, his interview is a whole lot of nothing.
 
Both the Ineos and Qatar have said that the purchase will be debt free (ie no new debt added). Neither have said they will clear the existing debt (although I expect that both of them would).

United will be well off financially under either group's ownership, but will likely be better off financially under the Qataris, because they will have a load of bogus sponsorship deals lined up from Qatari companies, to boost our revenues.
 
Glazers will sell to the biggest bidder, that will be Qatar. All this Jim Radcliffe talk is a complete waste of time.
 
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