The Red Knights – Saints or Demons?

I am sure all Manchester United fans are well aware of the efforts of the so called Red Knights and MUST in wanting to buy out the Glazers and take control of the club.

For those that don’t know, 30-40 mostly anonymous business men, bankers and hedge fund managers claim to be life long fans who are attempting to save the club from financial ruin under the current owners. They have teamed up with MUST, a group of disgruntled fans also interested in gaining ownership of the club.

Currently, all they are asking is for supporters to give their backing by signing up as MUST members. The target was to double the membership to 100,000 as a signal that they have the backing of the supporters and to continue with their plans. It has grown by almost 30,000 new members in the last 24 hours alone and will surely reach their target. Then what? Well the Knights will try to raise the rumoured £1.5 billion pounds needed to clear the huge club debt, buy out the Glazers and put the club on the road to decades of success. Easy! They also claim they will give the fans a seat at the boardroom table. Win/win for fans, right?

However, there is a problem. The Glazers don’t want to sell. It is either going to take a huge offer to make them change their minds or they are going to have to be forced out. It is going to take a lot more than waving a Green and Gold Scarf at them. There are already suggestions that the Knights will ask fans to boycott season tickets. No doubt that will also extend to official club merchandise and match day hospitality. They hope that the lose of revenue will cripple the Glazers business plan and force them to put the club on the market.

So all we have to do is virtually bankrupt the club we have supported our entire lives and place its future in a group of largely unknown people without any idea of their individual motives or how they are going to run the club when they seize control. Will they use debt to take over the club? Who will run the club? Will they each own a share in the club? Will they get dividend payments? How can we be sure the club will never again be taken over by greedy owners in search of a profit? Surely, they will all want their money back at some stage, what is their exit strategy? Who will represent the fans? How much of a say will the fans actually have?

Portsmouth and Leeds are perfect examples of clubs that have almost been destroyed by poor financial management. We have all seen what has happened recently at Liverpool with their 2 American owners virtually crippling the club at a business and footballing level through infighting and lack of funding. How will 40 presumably large egos manage?

I am sure all fans would agree that if the Knights want our backing, they should come out with a detailed statement of their intentions and promise to give 100% ownership of club back to the fans and run it in a similar fashion to Barcelona FC. Until they do, I for one will not be supporting them.