Tuesday 12 June 2007

Football takeovers - who pays?

There was an excellent article in The Daily Telegraph sports section at the weekend by Jim White. He questions the growing belief that since Manchester United have won the title this year that the takeover of the club has not lived up to horror show predicted by the anti-Glazer brigade.

On the plus side he notes:
- Winning the title
- Signing Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson this summer
- New contract for Ronaldo

But on the downside he points out that the renewal letters for Man U season tickets have just started hitting the doormats and they include:
- a 14% increase in the upfront cost of the ticket
- a requirement to buy tickets for every cup home game (potentially costing a lot of money)

And he then asks, where is all this money going? It is going to pay down the debt mountain he concludes and so use the fans money to buy the club for them.

As an Arsenal fan, I think that Jim's final point that this same threat hangs over the head of all the clubs facing takeover from foreigners is most apt and that the only investment they will make is the initial one - from then on it'll be the fans.

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