DJ MARK CHAPMAN DOES NOT LIKE THE LOOK OF GLAZER IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Last updated : 16 June 2005 By Editor

This from his BBC column:

As my bank manager could tell you, I don't know much about finance and business but even I can work out that as he now controls over 97 per cent of Manchester United, it might be difficult to stop him.

Wearing black at the Cup Final didn't work.

Wearing a wristband didn't work (on that subject, can we stop all wristbands now? There will be a wristband to support wearing wristbands if we carry on at this rate) and for those that marched at Old Trafford, that hasn't worked either.

Fans have been powerless to stop the Glazers moving in.

If there were just two of his sons on the board, rather than three, you could make an hilarious double glazing gag, except this is no laughing matter, unless you follow City, the Scousers, Arsenal, Chelski - or most other football clubs in this country.

Some United fans will claim that an American arriving at Old Trafford will take the soul out of the club.

They are living in cloud cuckoo land. There hasn't been a heart or a soul at the club for a long time.

Let's not forget that it wasn't that long ago that Peter Kenyon took the words "football" and "club" off the badge.

He also ditched local kit manufacturers Umbro in favour of all-conquering megabrand Nike.

Global domination was the plan of the plc and it is the plan of Glazer too. However, the plc kept the club in profit. Glazer has put them in debt.

Mega-rich owners are always welcome at clubs is another argument put forward by fans of other clubs that see no problem with Glazer.

Well, they are welcome if they are a Jack Walker or a Roman Abramovich.

They wanted success on the pitch for their club, and making money and success do not go hand in hand. Neither man made a profit out of their clubs.

Glazer is a businessman. He needs to make money just to cover interest payments on his debt.

Ticket prices at United are reasonable at the moment. £500 or so last season, mine will be £600-odd next season. I dread to think what they could be for 2006/7.

Not that I think the plc should get off the hook here. They have been raising the ticket prices regularly over the past few seasons.

I once received a letter telling me my ticket was going up to pay for Roy Keane's new contract. Keano wasn't best pleased with that.

I have kept my ticket for next year because if I gave it up, it would go to somebody from Copenhagen who would treat Old Trafford like Disneyland.

I can still protest though. I won't buy a programme, or a shirt, or a scarf or a duvet cover for my son.

I am not helping this man make money out of my football club. And that is what it comes down to. He sees it as a business and not a sport.

In that respect he isn't that different from a lot of people at the top of the game.

It has changed so much from when an eight-year-old boy from Sale, South Manchester was taken to Old Trafford for his birthday by his dad and fell in love with Manchester United Football Club.

I am naïve but why could our national sport not go back to being just that - a sport?