Fans urge Vodafone to end Man Utd sponsorship

Manchester United fans opposed to the takeover of their club by Malcolm Glazer today urged sponsor Vodafone to “hang up” on the billionaire businessman.

Protesters at the mobile giant’s annual meeting claimed Vodafone was at risk of being associated with a “severely tainted brand”.

They said Vodafone’s public image would suffer if Mr Glazer’s leadership of the football club proved unsuccessful.

Oliver Houston, vice-chairman of Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, said Vodafone could suffer enormous damage by sponsoring the club.

He said: “If Manchester United does fail financially, as many think it will, it will be the biggest failure football or sport has ever seen. Vodafone will be tied in with that.”

He said nobody was pretending fans were going to cripple Vodafone financially but its public image could suffer greatly.

“We are here to make a clear message that we are not going to go away,” he said.

“This could be a very, very big issue for Vodafone.”

Opponents to Mr Glazer’s takeover of the club earlier this year have vowed to boycott Manchester United merchandise in a bid to devalue the brand. They have also said they will stop people buying anything related to the sponsorship of the club.

Fans have protested at the amount of debt included in the takeover, which requires £540m (€781.9m) of borrowing, including a £265m (€383.7m) loan facility secured against United’s assets.

Mr Glazer’s plans for the club are said to include raising its revenues by 52% by 2010.