Manchester United fans have submitted a list of demands to the club's owners the Glazers in the wake of Sunday's mass protest which saw the game against Liverpool called off.
The Manchester United Supporters' Trust (MUST) have written an open letter to co-chairman Joel Glazer, outlining their demands and calling for fans to be given a greater say in the running of the club.
MUST laid out a four-point plan and demanded a response from the Glazers by Friday, although given the controversial US owners have refused to engage with fans since their takeover in 2005, a response is highly unlikely.
The letter read: “Dear Joel, the Fans Forum wrote to you and your senior management team on Friday. We don’t know if you saw it, but after the events of yesterday we trust your attention is now fully focused on the question of what happens next at Manchester United.
“First things first, let’s be very clear that no-one wants what happened at Old Trafford yesterday to be a regular event. We are football fans and we want to support our team.
“We don’t want to spend our days off work protesting outside our football ground.
“But what happened was the culmination of sixteen years in which your family’s ownership of the club has driven us into debt and decline, and we have felt ever more sidelined and ignored.
“After 16 years not one member of the Glazer family has ever had so much as a conversation with us, the club’s Supporters Trust.
“Yesterday, that frustration reached boiling point. For the vast majority of the thousands of attendees at the protest they made their voice heard peacefully and respectfully.
“We support the right of fans to protest lawfully and, although we did not personally witness any such acts, of course we do not condone any acts of violence.
“None of us want this to continue. We all have better things to do. So we need to find a way forward, and we have a four point plan for you to do that:
“1. Willingly and openly engage and promote the government initiated fan-led review of football and use this as an opportunity to rebalance the current ownership structure in the favour of supporters
“2. Immediately appoint independent directors to the board whose sole purpose is to protect the interest of the club as a football club, not its shareholders
“3. Work with the Manchester United Supporters Trust and supporters more broadly to put in place a share scheme that is accessible to all and that has shares with the same voting rights as those held by the Glazer family. Should the appetite be there amongst fans then you should welcome, and offer no opposition to, the Glazer Family shareholding being reduced to a minority or indeed being bought out altogether.
“4. Commit to full consultation with season ticket holders on any significant changes to the future of our club, including the competitions we play in.
“We request a response to this 4 point plan, in public and in writing, by Friday. This is the only way to move this issue on. We strongly suggest you take it.”
