Man United fans wage Twitter war against the Glazers

Manchester United fans are waging a Twitter campaign against the Glazers, Avram and Malcolm, owners of the club since 2005. They want them out of their club.

The hashtag #GlazersOut is reportedly the number one trending topic in the UK. So it is in Nigeria, where the Manchester-based club has a big fan base.

There were already 135,000 tweets about Glazer showing in Twitter Nigeria trend on Wednesday night.

Also trending is ‘Enough is Enough’.

Fans bemoan the decline of the club, the deterioration of Old Trafford Stadium and some say the Glazers are financially stripping United.

And some are daring the Glazers to attend the first game of United in August.

Here are some Tweets posted by United’s fans:

The club must think were all so stupid. They'll end up looking really stupid when they see the determination we have to get rid of the Glazer parasites. They're announcing AWB and we are all on Twitter denouncing the owners at the exact same time.
LMAO.#GlazersOut

— Sean (@logiebear196725) June 26, 2019

Enough is enough #GlazersOut pic.twitter.com/HZX31EQsjQ

— Nick Tito (@Nicktito17) June 26, 2019

@ManUtd top four isn’t a guarantee #GLAZERSOUT

— #glazersout (@Glazersgonow) June 26, 2019

#GlazersOut for the good of Manchester United..get the fuck out of our club yer set of theavin twats

— Wolfie (@papahelm72) June 26, 2019

#GlazersOut
Forever in debt to our fans❤️ pic.twitter.com/bKr3mHFYaK

— Kieran (@kieran2093) June 26, 2019

Bit late but never mind… #GlazersOut 🔴🇾🇪 pic.twitter.com/3CCl7ZchEJ

— MUFC Latest News (@MUFCNEWS1968) June 26, 2019

Just go #GlazersOut pic.twitter.com/IQaMlf8L0T

— Stevemufcecfcengland (@stevemufcecfc) June 26, 2019

Dont blame him tbh, the club lacks investment and ambition🤔#GlazersOut pic.twitter.com/Aaqh4WJnEc

— Trini Trin 🔰 (@trini_trin) June 26, 2019

And here is the story of how Malcolm Glazer took over Manchester United, according to a Wikipedia write-up:

Manchester United went public in 1990 and was the subject of takeover bids from property trader Michael Knighton and Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB corporation before Malcolm Glazer’s stake was announced in September 2003.

By the end of 2003, Glazer had increased his shareholding from 3.17% to around 15%, which he almost doubled in the year up to October 2004. His acquisition of John Magnier and J. P. McManus’s 28.7% stake in May 2005 pushed his own up to around 57%, well over the 30% threshold that would force him to launch a takeover bid. A few days later, he took control of 75% of the club’s shares, allowing him to delist the company from the stock exchange, and within a month, the Glazers took 98% ownership of the club via their Red Football parent company, forcing a squeeze out of the remaining 2%. The final purchase price of the club totalled almost £800 million.

Most of the capital used by Glazer to purchase Manchester United came in the form of loans, the majority of which were secured against the club’s assets, incurring interest payments of over £60 million per annum. The remainder came in the form of PIK loans (payment in kind loans), which were later sold to hedge funds. Manchester United was not liable for the PIKs, which were held by Red Football Joint Venture and were secured on that company’s shares in Red Football (and thus the club). The interest on the PIKs rolled up at 14.25% per annum. Despite this, the Glazers did not pay down any of the PIK loans in the first five years they owned the club. In January 2010, the club carried out a successful £500 million bond issue, and by March 2010, the PIKs stood at around £207 million.[1] The PIKs were eventually paid off in November 2010 by unspecified means.[2] In August 2012, as part of further refinancing, the Glazers sold a number of shares in Manchester United in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).[3]

Some Manchester United fans opposed Glazer’s takeover of the club, particularly once they realised the level of debt that the club would have to take on after having been debt-free for so many years. Disgruntled fans launched the football club F.C. United of Manchester in 2005, which entered the North West Counties Football League and has played in the sixth tier National League North since 2015. Since 2005, the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust has been working on a way of returning ownership of the club to supporters; in 2010, they met with a group of wealthy Manchester United fans – dubbed the “Red Knights” – to discuss a billion-pound takeover bid. However, the bid fell through when the Red Knights refused to meet the Glazers’ valuation of the club