Manchester United are still picking up the pieces after Sunday, when a group of supporters stormed Old Trafford, crashed the pitch, committed vandalism and got the biggest game in England canceled.
This belligerent subset of the United fan base showcased their discontent for the club’s ownership, the Glazer family, and got the Liverpool match called off. MUFC manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said the Sunday demonstration went “too far.” In the wake of all this, Sky News caught up to Avram Glazer, one of the club’s owners, but he refused to speak with them.
Manchester United vs AS Roma UEL Semifinal FYIs
Leg 2/2 Kickoff: Thu May 6, 8pm, Stadio Olimpico
Tie: United lead 6-2
United Starting XI Prediction: go here
Team news for both sides: go here
TV: BT Sport
Sky’s US correspondent Sally Lockwood (highly reccommend you watch the video at that link) ran into with Avram Glazer outside a Florida supermarket and provided him the chance to address supporters’ concerns after the protest.
She asked him if he had any message for supporters, whether or not this might be time for the family to sell the club or if he’d like to apologize for the plot to join/form the breakaway European Super League.
Lockwood said: “This an opportunity for you – an apology perhaps?”
Glazer refused to engage, and said nothing. He simply got in his car and drove off without speaking. Another Glazer brother, Joel, “apologized unreservedly” for the failed plan, shortly after the whole plot collapsed. The Super League saga, which was reviled by pretty much everybody except the owners of the clubs themselves, didn’t even last three full days.
Joel Glazer sent his message via an open letter to fans, and this act is a classic example of one of the reasons why so many fans are so angry with them. He provided a monologue, not a dialogue, and the Glazers as a whole have been very poor in communicating with the fan base.
The #GlazersOut crowd is very angry about all the money the family has taken out of the club, instead of investing in it. This acrimony is then exacerbated and compounded by the fact that the owners are mostly silent and distant from the fans who support the club.
As for any potential that the Glazers might sell the club? That doesn’t seem to be in the cards at all right now; at least according to an ESPN report. Lockwood asked Avram Glazer “are the fans just customers to you?” and “Is the customer always right?”
His lack of a response to those questions can definitely be interpretted as an answer; of sorts.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.