MANCHESTER, England (AP)—
Manager Alex Ferguson and owner Peter Kenyon came under fire from Manchester United fans at the club's annual general meeting - with ticketing, spending and Roy Keane the focus of their anger.
Despite the fact that the club is the wealthiest in the world in terms of income and profit, the fans complained about a new system of getting tickets for away games and said United wasn't spending enough on new players.
Some argued that Ferguson should have quit at the end of last season instead of staying on and questioned his loyalty to Keane.
Keane, the team captain, has been sent off 10 times and is serving a five-match ban for stating in his autobiography that he deliberately set out to hurt an opponent in a tackle.
"I can understand how the revelations in Roy's book disturbed some supporters," Ferguson told the meeting at Old Trafford.
"But it is very difficult to criticize someone who has committed himself to Manchester United the way Roy has for the past nine years.
"Every minute of his whole life is dedicated to the club and to winning football matches and it is very difficult to get people like that.
"We have spoken to him a lot and made him aware of his responsibilities but those flashes of temper are always going to be there," Ferguson said.
"You have to balance these things out because you cannot have a winner and a perfect gentleman, the two things don't go together."
Some fans condemned chief executive Kenyon for not releasing enough funds to buy top players.
"Do you want another club that is 100 million pounds (US$160 million) in debt and doesn't know where it's next team is coming from?" Kenyon replied.
"Since flotation we have spent 250 million (US$400 million) on players, the stadium and a new training facility at Carrington.
"We have spent 90 million (US$144 million) on players in the last two years alone, which doesn't stack up with the statements I have read which say there hasn't been any money available for transfers," Kenyon said.
"We are not going to run this business to the point where we could go bust. We are debt-free and profitable, which sets us apart in this industry and I believe we are in very good shape."
Kenyon also told the shareholders he was furious that United was still owed 12 million pounds (US$19.2 million) of the 16 million (US$25.6) Italian club Lazio paid for Dutch defender Jaap Stam two seasons ago.
Lazio, which sold Argentina star Juan Sebastian Veron to United at around the same time, has run into a financial crisis because owner Sergio Cragnotti's Cirio group of companies have suffered extreme financial problems. United has instigated legal proceedings to try and retrieve the balance.
"The way this has been carried out is abysmal," Kenyon said. "Football is all about honoring commitments and any team who buys players without paying for them is competing on an unfair basis. We are very unhappy about it.
"We paid 28 million (US$44.8 million) on the nose for Juan Veron and on that basis you would think it substantiated the fact that we would get our money back on Stam over the following 12 months."
Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon has launched a scathing attack on Lazio for their handling of the Jaap Stam deal - but insisted the missing £12 million would not prevent a new plunge into the transfer market.
Jaap Stam: Lazio owe United £12 million
(GraziaNeri/Allsport)
Last week, United informed the Stock Exchange that they were instigating legal proceedings against the Italian outfit for non-payment of the bulk of Stam's £16 million fee.
Owner Sergio Cragnotti's Cirio group of companies have suffered extreme financial problems and consequently the club now find themselves unable to pay off huge debts.
This has not gone down well at Old Trafford, especially as they had paid Lazio £28.1million up front for Juan Sebastian Veron just weeks before Stam quit Old Trafford.
`The way this has been carried out is abysmal,' blasted Kenyon.
`Football is all about honouring commitments and any team who buys players without paying for them is competing on an unfair basis. We are very unhappy about it.
`We paid £28 million on the nose for Juan Veron and on that basis you would think it substantiated the fact that we would get our money back on Stam over the following 12 months.
`We were told and believed that when Lazio made an agreement and bought a player, they were doing it in the same good faith that we do on all our other contracts.
`This is a situation we didn't want and one that we certainly won't be repeating again. It's about people who make agreements and sign contracts not keeping their part of the deal.'
Kenyon remains confident that United will get their cash and during a stormy annual general meeting at Old Trafford today rejected shareholders' suggestions that a promised extra dividend, which amounts to a total pay-out of £2.6 million, should be scrapped.
Although neither he, nor manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who conducted a question and answer session at the end of the meeting, would confirm that a move to bring in new faces would take place when the transfer window opens in January, Kenyon said the Stam problem would not have an impact on the cash the manager has to spend.
`We don't see this as a long term debt that we won't receive very much from,' he said.
`We have plans for strengthening our squad on the basis of what players we want, the squad size we need and the players who will represent Manchester United going forward.
`In the short-term we don't see there is any impact and because we think we will get the money back, I don't think there will be a long-term impact on our ability to strengthen the squad either.'
Kenyon and financial director David Gill were both forced onto the defensive during the meeting, although neither received the brunt of criticism faced by chairman Sir Roy Gardner.
Vocal pressure group Shareholders United demanded a place on the board and also called for future annual general meetings to be held on weekends, both proposals being staunchly opposed by club officials.
Even the arrival of Ferguson was written off as PR exercise by one angry speaker, although the manager himself wasn't immune from criticism, being told he should have stuck to his original decision to retire and then, in a reference to his illustrious racehorse Rock of Gibraltar, informed that he needed to clear out the stables.
It brought a rather curt response from the Scot, who was then, bizarrely, asked whether he could sort out problems with the match-day PA system and speed up the relaying of half-time scores.
On a more relevant note, fans expressed their anger at a new system of allocating away match tickets, which they believe no longer rewards loyalty, although again the club dismissed the argument, saying that supporters from outlying areas shouldn't be prevented from attending away matches in their locality just because they hadn't attended games elsewhere.
`Don't accuse me of not listening to you when I don't come back with the answer you want,' said an agitated Kenyon at one stage as he defended the way the club is run.
`Do you want another club that is £100 million in debt and doesn't know where it's next team is coming from,' he added.
`Since flotation we have spend £0.25 billion on players, the stadium and a new training facility at Carrington.
`We have spent £90 million on players in the last two years alone, which doesn't stack up with the statements I have read which say there hasn't been any money available for transfers.
`We are not going to run this business to the point where we could go bust. We are debt-free and profitable, which sets us apart in this industry and I believe we are in very good shape.'
The Uefa Champions League draw was not the only thing on people's minds at Old Trafford today. This year's AGM took place at the famous stadium and as always there was the usual lively debate between shareholders and the board.
New chairman Sir Roy Gardner wanted to take a more business like approach to the meeting, and Manchester United's Director of Communcations Paddy Harverson was delighted with the way the meeting went.
"It was a good AGM, we changed a number of things around to take a more business like approach. There was the usual lively debates between shareholders, a lot of whom were speaking as fans more than shareholders and the board."
"Obviously the shareholders who are fans want to ask fan orientated questions so ticketing was a hot topic - in particular the allocation of away tickets, which is a big subject at the moment."
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson also made an appearance after the meeting was closed and spent half an hour answering questions from the audience. Paddy Harverson said: "It was the usual mix of debate and passionate appeals. What was really different this time around of course was that Sir Alex made an appearance at the end, after the meeting was over. The meeting was closed and Sir Roy Gardner invited Sir Alex in, and he answered questions from the audience.
Paddy added: "They were an interesting mix of good and bad questions. The manager, as always, answered with usual aplomb. There was one shareholder fan who was critical of him but he didn't have the support of the room. The large majority were delighted to see him, and gave him a great ovation at the end."
The Director of Communications for the club also stressed the importance of the AGM being a business meeting, and felt that in that sense, it was highly successful.
"It was an excellent meeting which reflected primarily the importance of it being a business meeting but also the recognition that the majority of shareholders are obviously fans who have the interests of the football club at the forefront of their minds. We were very, very pleased with it."
There were, as usual, agreements and disagreements but all in all, the meeting ran smoothly. Mr Harverson said: "We have got to be honest, we don't always agree with some of the views put across by the shareholders, nobody is ever always going to agree. There are members of shareholders United who are going to have different views from ours. We're honest and open about our decisions and Peter Kenyon is particularly very good at expressing that.
"Ultimately it's about getting a balance between the interests of all the stakeholders in the company."
And after a successful AGM this year, Paddy Harverson was looking forward to the next. "There are always lessons for the future which we will learn, and hopefully next year's AGM will than this one," he added.
