Manchester United: How ‘scavenger’ Glazers bought club – and left Old Trafford ‘rusting’ and in a ‘mess’
It’s nearly 20 years since the American tycoon Malcolm Glazer bought his first stake in Manchester United – now his family’s controversial tenure at the club could finally be coming to an end.
Chants of “Love United, hate Glazers” are regularly heard at Old Trafford and news that the owners are exploring a sale will delight many United supporters.
Here, Sky News tells the story of the Glazers’ ownership of the Premier League club and explains why the family have been so unpopular with fans – even attracting criticism from one of their own star players, Cristiano Ronaldo, who left the club with immediate effect earlier today.
Malcolm Glazer took control of Man United in 2005. Pic: AP
Glazers buy Man Utd – and saddle club with debt
Malcolm Glazer owned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an American football team that were then the Super Bowl champions, when he began his investment in United in March 2003.
At the time, United had dominated the Premier League and were one of the most successful clubs in the world, winning an array of silverware under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Glazer took full control of United in June 2005, but the deal was hugely unpopular with fans because it was financed primarily through loans secured against the club’s assets.
Within a year of the leveraged buyout, Glazer had two strokes and his six children – Avram, Joel, Bryan, Kevin, Darcie and Edward – ran United, all of them sitting on the board of directors.
Avram Glazer, left, and Joel Glazer are executive co-chairmen of Manchester United
The Glazers’ £790m takeover loaded United with debt that is now around £500m. The club were debt-free before the takeover.
Fans have been enraged by the more than £1bn it has cost the Glazers to service the debt, while cashing in themselves by receiving dividends from the club.
Man United fans protest over Malcolm Glazer’s proposed takeover in 2004
Fan protests and FC United formed
The Glazer family’s first visit to Old Trafford ended in ugly and violent scenes in June 2005 as police clashed with supporters who had effectively barricaded United’s new owners inside the stadium.
Joel, Avram and Bryan Glazer reportedly had to be smuggled down the players’ tunnel and out of the ground in two police tactical aid vans for their own safety.
Police clear a barricade to allow a van, supposedly carrying Joel Glazer, to leave Old Trafford in 2005
The Glazers’ controversial takeover prompted a group of disaffected Man United supporters to form a new football club.
FC United began their first season in 2005-06 and now compete in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of the English football league system.
Success on the pitch
Under the continued management of Sir Alex, United initially remained successful under the Glazers’ ownership, winning five Premier League titles in seven seasons between 2007 and 2013.
With star players Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, United enjoyed a prolific three-year spell from 2007 to 2009, winning three Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy and the League Cup.
But fans’ anger at the Glazers remained.
Man United fans wave green and gold scarves in protest at the Glazers in 2010
Green and gold scarf campaign
In 2010, United fans began donning yellow and green scarves to protest against the Glazers’ ownership.
United are known for their famous red shirts, but the club was originally founded, in 1878, under the name Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club, which played in a bold yellow and green strip.
At the height of the protests, former United player David Beckham put on a green and gold scarf that was thrown on to the pitch during his return to Old Trafford with AC Milan in 2010.
That night, Joel and Avram Glazer were inside the stadium but Beckham later distanced himself from the protest, saying the ownership of United was “not my business”.
Red Knights takeover bid
A group of wealthy supporters were expected to make a bid of about £1bn for United in 2010, despite United insisting the Glazer family owners would “not entertain any offers”.
The Red Knights group, which included former Football League chairman Keith Harris and Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neil, said that one of its priorities was to reduce debt levels at the club.
The proposed bid was put on hold after the group said media speculation of “inflated valuation aspirations” had hampered its plans.
Post-Ferguson problems
Since Sir Alex called time on his illustrious managerial career nearly 10 years ago, United’s form has gone downhill.
Despite appointing high-profile managers such as Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal, the club has failed to win the Premier League since 2013 – while spending more than £1bn on players in that time.
United have also not won a trophy since their Europa League triumph in 2017.
To make matters worse, arch rivals Manchester City and Liverpool have enjoyed huge success as they regularly compete for Premier League and Champions League titles.
Pic: AP
Malcolm Glazer death
Malcolm Glazer died in 2014 at the age of 85, having never visited Old Trafford during his ownership of the club.
Although he was a controversial figure in Manchester, tributes poured in from the US, where the businessman was hugely respected for turning Tampa Bay from a laughing stock into a Super Bowl-winning franchise.
After Glazer’s death, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said: “Malcolm Glazer was the guiding force behind the building of a Super Bowl-champion organisation.
European Super League anger
The Glazers attracted more fury from United fans after taking a leading role in attempts to form a European Super League last year.
United, along with Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, caused outrage with their plans to join the breakaway competition, in which the founding members would be exempt from relegation.
The six English clubs had planned to set up the league with Spanish sides Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid and Italy’s AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, in a group that some nicknamed the “dirty dozen”.
Fans stormed the Old Trafford pitch in May 2021
The proposal led to protests from football fans across England, with several hundred storming the Old Trafford pitch before United were due to play Liverpool, meaning the game had to be postponed.
After the clubs backed down Joel Glazer, who had been announced as a vice-chairman of the European Super League, “apologised unreservedly” to fans, saying: “We got it wrong.”
His brother Avram refused to apologise after Sky News confronted him in Florida.
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Sky News questions Avram Glazer over Man Utd
After the scandal, United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward announced he would be leaving the club, having been an unpopular figure with fans after a series of expensive signings with precious little success.
Neville brands Glazers ‘scavengers’
Former Man United captain Gary Neville – who was a player at the club in 2005 when the Glazers took over – has been a vocal critic of the owners in recent months.
After the European Super League fiasco, Neville branded the Glazers “scavengers” who “need booting out of this football club and booting out of this country”.
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Gary Neville on the Glazers
“We have got to come together,” he told Sky Sports.
“It might be too late, there’ll be people at Manchester United, fans 15 years ago who will say it’s too late.
“It’s never too late, we have got to stop this. It is absolutely critical we do.”
Neville has claimed Old Trafford is “rusting”, with £1bn needed to rebuild the stadium, and the club is in a “mess”.
“When a business is failing and it’s not performing, it is the owners of that business [who are to blame],” Neville said after United were beaten 4-0 by Brentford this season.
“It is really simple. It is failing miserably.
“They took about £24m out of the club two months ago and they have now got a decrepit, rotting stadium, which is second-rate when it used to be the best in the world 15-20 years ago.
“You have got a football project where they haven’t got a clue.”
Neville said there has been a “toxic culture and atmosphere created at the club over a 10-year period” after the departures of Sir Alex and former United chief executive David Gill.
“It is a mess and it cannot carry on,” he added.
Ronaldo criticism
The latest high-profile criticism of the Glazers came from one of Manchester United’s very own star players.
Ronaldo launched a blistering attack on the club’s owners during an interview with Talk TV host Piers Morgan.
The Portugal star, who returned to United last year after 12 years away, claimed the Glazers “don’t care about the club” and said it was a “marketing club”.
“They will get money from the marketing – the sport, it’s, they don’t really care, in my opinion,” he said.
Ronaldo also claimed United had not progressed as a club since the departure of Sir Alex in 2013.
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Ronaldo defends explosive interview
“Nothing changed. Surprisingly,” he said.
“Not only the pool, the jacuzzi, even the gym… Even some points, the technology, the kitchen, the chefs, which is, I appreciate, lovely persons.
“They stopped in a time, which surprised me a lot. I thought I will see different things… different, as I mentioned before, technology, infrastructure.
“But, unfortunately, we see many things that I used to see when I was 20, 21, 23. So, it surprised me a lot.”
Since the interview last week, the club’s lawyers had reportedly been looking at ways to bring Ronaldo’s time at the club to an end and on Tuesday it was announced that he was leaving “by mutual agreement, with immediate effect”.
Talk of sale and interest from Britain’s richest man
Bloomberg reported in August that the Glazer family were considering selling a minority stake in United and preliminary discussions had been held about bringing in a new investor.
It also emerged that one of Britain’s richest men, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a boyhood United fan and a proven investor in sport through his Ineos company, had expressed an interest in buying the club.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe expressed an interest in buying Manchester United
In October, he revealed he had met the Glazer family and was told they were not interested in selling Manchester United.
“I met Joel and Avram, and they are the nicest people,” Sir Jim said.
“They are proper gentlemen, and they don’t want to sell it. It is owned by the six children of the father and they don’t want to sell.”
Three Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth from their nation’s space station after their capsule was damaged.
The team deployed a red and white striped parachute as they descended, before landing at a remote site in the Gobi Desert in Asia on Friday.
The astronauts – Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie – had been due to return on 5 November to end their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.
However, their journey back was delayed by nine days because the Shenzhou-20 return capsule they were due to travel in was found to have tiny cracks.
These were most likely caused by the impact of space debris hitting the craft, China’s space agency said.
There are millions of pieces of mostly tiny particles that circle the Earth at speeds faster than a bullet.
They can come from launches and collisions and pose a risk to satellites, space stations and the astronauts who operate outside them.
With the Shenzhou-20 out of action, the crew – who travelled to the space station in April – used a Shenzhou-21 craft instead, which had brought a three-person replacement crew to the station.
The launch of the Shenzhou-21 craft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, China, on 31 October. Pic: Kyodo via AP
The Chinese space agency said the stranded taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts – had remained in good condition throughout.
The first module of the Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace”, was launched by the Chinese state in 2021.
It is smaller than the International Space Station, from which Beijing is blocked, due to US national security concerns.
China’s space programme has developed steadily since 2003.
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In a long term plan to advance its orbital capabilities, China plans to land a person on the moon by 2030 and has already explored Mars with a robotic rover.
The Asian nation’s latest space mission brought four mice to study how weightlessness and confinement would affect them.
An engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the study will help master key technologies for breeding and monitoring small mammals in space.
World
High Court rules company liable for Brazil dam collapse – the country’s worst environmental disaster
A judge has ruled that a company can be held liable for a dam collapse which devastated indigenous communities in Brazil and became the country’s worst environmental catastrophe.
At the High Court in London, Judge Finola O’Farrell ruled that mining giant BHP should not have continued to raise the height of the Fundao Dam before its collapse.
This, she ruled, was “a direct and immediate cause” of the disaster. BHP said immediately after that it would appeal the decision.
The case was brought in British courts because BHP was listed on the London Stock Exchange at the time of the collapse.
Brought by the international law firm Pogust Goodhead on behalf of hundreds of thousands of victims, the claim marks the first time any of the mining companies behind the dam have been held legally responsible for the disaster.
The dam’s collapse released approximately 40 million tons of toxic sludge, including arsenic, which spread 370 miles along the Doce River and out to sea. In total, 19 people died, while hundreds of homes were destroyed.
The case has become the largest environmental group action in English legal history, representing a significant milestone for holding corporations accountable and advancing environmental justice.
Gelvana Rodrigues da Silva, who lost her seven-year-old son Thiago in the flood, said in a statement: “Finally, justice has begun to be served, and those responsible have been held accountable for destroying our lives.”
Pic: Reuters
One of the largest civil claims ever in England
The Fundao Dam near the city of Mariana was operated by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian company Vale.
Its collapse happened almost 10 years ago to the day.
With 620,000 claimants, the case is one of the largest civil claims ever lodged in England and Wales.
The aftermath of the disaster in Bento Rodrigues district, Brazil. Pic: Reuters
A damaged house in Bento Rodrigues district. Pic: Reuters
Brazil is currently hosting the COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belem, aiming to position itself as a climate leader and champion of indigenous rights.
Shirley Djukurna Krenak, an indigenous leader whose community has lived for generations along the Doce River, said the summit is removed from the realities faced by indigenous peoples, and full of “greenwashing” and false promises.
“If all the previous COPs had worked, we wouldn’t still be talking about crimes like this,” she said.
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In October 2024, Brazil’s government and the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo signed a 132bn Brazilian real (£20bn) compensation settlement with Samarco, Vale and BHP, to fund social and environmental repairs.
BHP had argued that the court case in Britain duplicates other legal proceedings and reparations work.
Reacting to Friday’s judgment, the company said that settlements in Brazil would reduce the size of the London lawsuit by about half.
Vale, the co-owner of the company operating the dam, announced after the verdict that it estimated an additional expense of about $500m (£381m) in its 2025 financial statements to cover obligations linked to the disaster.
A second trial to determine the damages BHP is liable to pay is due to begin in October 2026.
The entrance of the Fabrica Nova iron ore mine in Mariana, Brazil, in November 2015. Pic: Reuters
How the Mariana dam disaster unfolded
On 5 November 2015, the Fundao tailings dam collapsed in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
It released approximately 40 million tons of toxic sludge, including arsenic, which buried the small town of Bento Rodrigues and poured pollution into the Doce River.
The mud travelled so quickly that residents did not have time to escape, and it killed 19 people. Around 600 people lost their homes.
The toxic waste made its way to the Atlantic Ocean, destroying water supplies, vehicles, habitats, livestock and livelihoods.
Ten years later, reconstruction and reparations have dragged on through legal disputes, and the indigenous Krenak people are still struggling to live along the Doce River that remains contaminated with heavy metals.
World
Sudan’s top paramilitary adviser says US calls to cut supply of weapons may ‘jeopardise ceasefire’
A top adviser to the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has said US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s remarks on halting weapons supplies “jeopardise ceasefire efforts”.
In his remarks yesterday, Mr Rubio called for international powers to stop sending military support to the RSF, the paramilitary group which has been at war with the Sudanese Army since 2023.
“This needs to stop. They’re clearly receiving assistance from outside,” Mr Rubio said.
In a statement on X, Elbasha Tibeig, adviser to RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, dismissed Mr Rubio’s comments as “an unsuccessful step” that does not serve global efforts aimed at reaching a humanitarian ceasefire.
Mr Tibeig said Mr Rubio’s comments may lead to an escalation of the fighting.
The US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – known as the Quad – have been working on ways to end the war.
The war began in April 2023 after the Sudanese army and RSF, then partners, clashed over plans to integrate.
Last week, the RSF said they had agreed to a US-led proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire. Mr Rubio doesn’t believe the RSF intends to comply with that agreement.
“The RSF has concluded that they’re winning and they want to keep going,” he said yesterday.
He added that they’re “not just fighting a war, which war alone is bad enough. They’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately”.
Sudanese women who fled intense fighting in Al Fashir sit at a displacement camp in Al Dabba. Pic: Reuters/El Tayeb Siddig
The war has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, and displaced millions more. Aid groups say that the true death toll could be much higher.
The RSF is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity across Sudan since the war started. Most recently, there were reports of mass killings during the fall of Al Fashir, a city which was recently captured by the RSF.
A Sky News investigation into events in Al Fashir found thousands were targeted in ‘killing fields’ around the Sudanese city.
Grab from RSF social media channels in Al Fashir, Sudan
Marco Rubio did not specify which countries he was referring to in his calls to halt arms supplies, but US intelligence assessments have found that the United Arab Emirates, a close US ally, has been supplying weapons.
Previous reporting on Sky News has supported allegations that the UAE militarily supports the RSF, though the country officially denies it.
“I can just tell you, at the highest levels of our government, that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties,” Mr Rubio said.
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