OUR football correspondent LIAM MACKEY is back in top form and full of energy.
He casts his eye over your comments and gives his own critical analysis of the goings on throughout the world of football.
You may agrewith him or then again you may not.
This week United fans need to do more than knit scarves; Aquillani is the buy of the season; Carragher on talks about leaving; Ireland v Brazil anything learned; Joe Cole for United; Chelsea hold out for Ribery; Terry’s hair cut; Abolishing off side trap; United lost without Rooney; Portsmouth secure future; Cole and Wright Phillips bit part overpaid players; Goal-line technology.
The Letter of the Week goes to Red Devil, Limerick. Get in touch with your postal address and our magnificent prize will be winging its way to you before you know it.
THERE are certain things that need to be done if Manchester United is to be prised from the vice-like grip of the Glazers . . . and every one of them needs a greater sacrifice than getting your Ma to knit a green and gold scarf.
Firstly the support of the season ticket holders must be rallied before the time for renewals. That means now, not next month or May when people may be distracted by the whiff of silverware.
The protestors should set themselves up as a charitable trust into which pot all the potential season ticket money, cash set aside to buy replica shirts and end-of-season videos can be collected. Plus there should be lobbying for donations.
There will need to be a contract which states that anyone who donates their season ticket revenues will definitely get their season ticket back after the regime change, and that they will do so on terms which are more favourable than those who haven’t bothered to support the campaign to get rid of this iniquitous administration -- those who have behaved selfishly in fact.
Boycott everything in respect of United that ends up putting money in the Glazer’s coffers. This includes Sky TV subscriptions. Write to Sky and tell them why you are cancelling. Don’t go to the games. While Old Trafford is packed the owners are sitting pretty.
Use any money raised to start buying the debt bonds which have been issued against Manchester United.
The key to all this is not only to make the Glazers nervous. It is to make the banks nervous and put the club in a position where they might miss payments. They will then be under greater pressure from the debtors, of which Manchester United fans will form an influential group. Football owners everywhere will realise that you can’t run a successful enterprise unless you have the support of the fans. And that has to be in the long-term interests of the game.
So, short-term pain now, for long-term gain. That could be the real legacy of Manchester -- the city where the Co-operative movement was founded -- to football. Red Devil, Limerick, by email
OUR SHOUT: Red Devil's 'People's Power' scenario has an appealingly romantic ring to it - and earns him our Letter of the Week prize - but somehow I suspect it'll take the heavy financial hitters of the Red Knight's crew to shift the Glazers - if shift they will.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, March 09, 2010
