Simon Jordan has slammed Manchester United fans as self-entitled and “detached from reality” while defending the club’s hugely unpopular owners.
United are 163 days into the process of being sold, with the Glazer family considering takeover bids from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as offers from investment groups. The Glazers are expected to announce their preferred bidder in the coming days, following the third and final deadline on Friday.
The club’s fans have regularly protested against the Glazers, who completed a debt-leveraged takeover in 2005. Meanwhile, there has been lots of debate over whether the offers from Ratcliffe or Sheikh Jassim would represent the best way forward for United.
Sheikh Jassim, a mysterious Qatari banker, is offering to buy 100 per cent of the club, while British petrochemicals billionaire Ratcliffe plans to buy the Glazers’ 69 per cent stake, although there have been suggestions he could allow Joel and Avram Glazer to stay involved via holding a minority stake.
The idea of the Glazers staying is something of a nightmare for many United fans, who are desperate to see the back of the American family, who they believe have been negligent owners. However, former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan believes the fans’ criticism of the Glazers is not warranted and their hopes for a Qatari takeover is hypocritical.
“The behaviour of certain Manchester United fans regarding the imminent takeover beggars belief – they embody the new generation of entitlement,” he wrote for the Daily Mail. “Their hypocrisy and double standards are so steeped in a lack of self-awareness that it borders on the staggering.”
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Jordan pointed out that United fans were quick to mock Manchester City after they were taken over by Sheikh Mansour, who has pumped in millions via Abu Dhabi. He thinks that United fans are hypocrites because they bemoan other clubs’ wealthy backers while simultaneously asking for a new owner with the deepest pockets.
“United fans’ aversion to their current owners, the Glazers, is based around the fact they had the audacity to buy the club in part with other people’s money and carried debt,” he added.
“Oh boo hoo, get over it. Fans are entitled to a view and an ability to express it, of course they are, but if leveraged purchases are so awful, why do the majority of businesses get bought that way?”
United’s latest accounts showed that the club's long-term debt stood at £535.7million. When other borrowings and outstanding transfer fees were added to the bottom line, that figure ballooned to a whopping £969.6m.
The Glazers are understood to want £6bn to sell United, but both Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim’s offers value the club at around the £5bn mark.
