David Beckham has said he will not accept MUST’s invitation to become a spokesperson for the group and their green and gold anti-Glazer protest. Which makes sense considering Beckham has a lot to think about right now playing for Milan, later the Galaxy and England this summer, but as far as most are concern Beckham has already made his point clear. It’s been almost two months since the green and gold protest took off and things are looking very good.
The club is getting scared and are censoring anything related to the protest. Players are banned from even addressing it. MUTV’s broadcasts of Sir Alex’s press conferences are being shown delayed and are edited to take out any questions regarding the protests. A steward was fired for returning a “Love United Hate Glazer” banner. A fan was kicked out of an MUTV broadcast for wearing a green and gold scarf. They are trying to avoid even acknowledging it, but it’s not working. The BBC, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, Sky Sports, Setanta, ESPN, the Sun, all of them can’t get enough of it.
So now what comes next? Well, this is where the Red Knights will come into the equation. I’m not sold though. As a member of MUST (Manchester United Supporters’ Trust) I’m entirely behind MUST and their eventual dream of supporter ownership of the club. This obviously can’t happen without the backing of people willing to invest serious cash into the club. This is where MUST hopes the Red Knights will come in. My problem with the Red Knights is that I don’t know anything about them.
Aside from the debt and raised ticket prices one of the criticisms of the Glazers is that they have taken the club away from the supporters. Everything is done behind closed doors and there is very little transparency about what is going on with the club. So far the Red Knights have been very secretive. Before I put my support behind the Red Knights I want to know what’s going on. I want to know who they are. I want to now what their plan for the club is. I want to know how supporter ownership will play into their plan. I want to know who they plan to make decisions for the club. There are still a lot of questions regarding how the Red Knights are approaching the situation.
Ideally I’d like to see one football-savvy man take control of the club backed by many financial supporters. Then have a certain percentage set aside for supporter ownership through MUST. This eliminates any fear of ego maniacs fighting over the direction of the club, but also allows supporters to have some sway in the way in which the club is run.
But before any of this can happen the Red Knights and the big brass of MUST explain what is going on with this effort. Until then the supporters will continue to sport Green and Gold and fight against the Glazers, but at the moment I’m certainly not head over heels for these mysterious Red Knights.
