Red Knight’s bid for United may go ahead
A BID to wrest control of Manchester United could be back on after a fans’ campaign against its American owners appears to have taken hold.
The club was forced to humiliatingly offer a second batch of season tickets more than seven weeks after the initial deadline.
Around 4,000 tickets were put on general sale by the club last week, despite claims from within Old Trafford that all season tickets would be sold. Old Trafford would not confirm how many tickets have not been renewed but analysts have speculated it could be as high as 5,000-10,000.
It is the first time in its recent history the club has failed to shift the full quota of tickets and appears to fly in the face of claims it has a long waiting list for seats.
The news follows a long-running campaign from fans who are dismayed by the level of debt the Glazer family has saddled the club with.
They tied around £716m of debt to the Premier League outfit when they bought it in 2007. Earlier this year the Glazers took out a £500m bond issue to finance the debt.
The unrest at the club is believed to have reignited the interest of a group of wealthy City-based United fans desperate to take control of the club.
The consortium, known as the Red Knights, is understood to have access to over £1bn. However, its members are refusing to cave in to the Glazers’ hard-ball tactics. The owners have publicly stated the club is not for sale but are believed to be privately willing to deal for around £1.5bn.
The Red Knights include former Centrica boss Sir Roy Gardner; Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs; Keith Harris head of Seymour Pierce; Paul Marshall, founder of the London hedge fund Marshall Wace; Mark Rawlinson, of Freshfields, Nomura banker Guy Dawson and Richard Hytner, from Saatchi & Saatchi.
FAST FACTS | MANCHESTER UNITED
● Two years ago United sold a total of 64,000 season tickets.
● Last week 4,000 went on general sale – meaning they are open to people who are not on the club’s waiting list.
JIM O’NEILL
CHIEF ECONOMIST
GOLDMAN SACHS
JIM O’Neill is head of the consortium of wealthy City figures – known as the Red Knights – who are hoping to buy Manchester United for a fee of around £1bn.
He served as a non-executive director of Manchester United before it returned to private ownership in 2005.
The son of a postman grew up in Gatley in Manchester, where he fostered his passion for football. He turned down a place at a private school in favour of a comprehensive because it did not play the game.
The life-long United fan has been chief economist at Goldman Sachs since September 2001.
He joined Goldman in October 1995 as a partner, co-head of global economics and chief currency economist. He specialises in analysing foreign exchange markets and is the creator of the well known acronym Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China), representing the world’s major growth economies.
He is a board member of the Royal Economic Society, European think-tank Bruegel and Belgian think-tank Itinera.
He studied geography and economics at Sheffield University, where he maintained his active interest in football.