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Post by ratbag on May 6, 2021 12:36:45 GMT
TeamViewer shares down another 6% today. They have now had more wiped from their company value than the entirety of their commercial partnership for five years. This might actually do something. I wonder what has happened to other sponsors' shares? If we can get TeamViewer to pull out, the leeches might start to get wobbly and cash out... PLEEEEEEEASE... |
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Post by Chris on May 6, 2021 21:37:55 GMT
Good watch
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Post by kstandhand on May 7, 2021 9:49:25 GMT
From the NY Times
By Rory Smith
May 2, 2021
At the Lowry Hotel, Manchester United’s players could do nothing but sit and watch. Outside, hundreds of fans had gathered, blockading the buses scheduled to take them on the short trip to Old Trafford. They were supposed to depart at 3 p.m., local time. It came and went. The crowd did not disperse. Then 4 p.m. ticked by on the clock. Still no movement.
A couple of miles down the road, what had started out as an organized protest against the team’s ownership — the irredeemably unpopular and, by most definitions, parasitic Glazer family — had swelled and warped into something far more chaotic, far more wild.
Hundreds of fans had broken through the security forces and made it onto the field. There were suggestions that some had found their way into the entrails of the stadium, reaching as far as Old Trafford’s sanctum sanctorum, the home team’s changing room. A small number of those still outside the stadium clashed with the police. Two officers were injured.
United’s players were still restricted to their hotel rooms at 4:30 p.m., as the Premier League’s marquee fixture should have been kicking off. Manchester United against Liverpool is English soccer’s greatest rivalry, the meeting of its two most successful clubs. This edition even had a title on the line, for good measure, albeit indirectly: a Liverpool win would have handed Manchester City the championship.
For a while, the Premier League refused to bow to the inevitable. The game would be delayed, it said, but would go ahead as soon as the players’ safety could be assured. By 5.30 p.m. — what should have been the start of the second half — the scales had fallen. The league released a short statement, confirming the match had been postponed.
“We understand and respect the strength of feeling but condemn all acts of violence, criminal damage and trespass, especially given the associated Covid-19 breaches,” it read. “Fans have many channels by which to make their views known, but the actions of a minority seen today have no justification.”
There are two roads that the league, the clubs involved and soccer as a whole can take from here. One is to focus on the method. It does not need to be pointed out that the violence outside the stadium — limited though it was — should be condemned. It cannot and should not be justified. The same is true of the more minor offenses of “criminal damage and trespass.”
Those offenses open a door. They make it possible to depict all of those involved with the protests, both at Old Trafford and the Lowry Hotel, as hooligans and troublemakers and, above all, yobs, the epithet wheeled out whenever soccer fans need to be demonized.
They disincentivize engaging with the sentiments behind the protests, make it easy to cast the events of Sunday as nothing but mindlessness and lawlessness. They turn emotion, sincere and deep, into nothing but self-serving revanchism: fans protesting because their team is not top of the league.
They offer an easy solution, the panacea that soccer always turns to in the end. Win the Europa League later this month and all of this will be forgotten, nothing more than a few million more social media engagements for the club to cite in glowing terms in the next quarterly review of its finances.
The second is to avoid that easy pitfall, and to focus instead on the message. The Glazers have never been popular at Old Trafford. There were protests when they completed their heavily leveraged takeover of a club they knew little to nothing about in 2005. There were more at the end of that decade, fans decking themselves out in the club’s first colors — green and gold — rather than its more famous red to signal their discontent.
That hostility has never dissipated. But for much of the last decade, it lay dormant. Not because of United’s success — by its own standards, the last eight years have been disappointing — but because of the apparent futility of protest.
Manchester United, like all soccer teams, might feel like a social and community institution. It might continually pitch itself as one. It might occasionally even act like one. But it is, in the most real and relevant sense, a business, and it is a business owned by the Glazers, and because no matter how ardent the protests, the Glazers did not seem to flinch, the energy dissipated.
And then, two weeks ago, Joel Glazer, a co-chairman of the club, put his name to a proposal to start a European superleague, and the fury awoke. Fans of the other English teams tainted by association with the project have taken to the streets — a protest by Chelsea fans precipitated the league’s demise; their peers at Arsenal came out in the thousands a few days later — but none have gone quite so far as United. None have brought the league that styles itself as the greatest in the world to a standstill on one of its red-letter days.
In part, that is down to the unpopularity of the Glazers. The reaction at each of the clubs involved has, in some way, reflected the fans’ relationship with the owners.
Arsenal is desperate to be rid of another unloved American, Stan Kroenke: It came out in force. Liverpool, where Fenway Sports Group has some residual admiration, has been a little more circumspect. Manchester City has not seen any mass gatherings, testament to the debt of gratitude its fans feel they owe its backers in Abu Dhabi. At United, hatred of the Glazers runs deep.
The message their protest sent, though, stretches way beyond parochial concerns or tribal affiliations. It is not just, as it might appear, that fans do not want a superleague. That was established beyond doubt a couple of weeks ago. It is not just that fans do not want their clubs to be used as playthings by owners who care less for the names on the roster than the numbers on the bottom line.
It is that, after years of fretting that their teams had been hijacked by the billionaire class and that their game had been taken away from them by television contracts and rampant commercialism and unstoppable globalization, the last two weeks have taught fans that they are not quite so powerless as they once thought.
If they do not want a superleague, they can stop it in its tracks; it follows, then, that if they do not want the game they have now, then they can do something about it. As one of the chants that United players will have heard, drifting up to their rooms in the Lowry from the street below, had it: “We decide when you will play.”
That has not felt true for some time, but, all of a sudden, it is possible to believe it. It has gone unsaid for too long, but the whole cash-soaked edifice of modern soccer has been built on fans: the match tickets and the television subscriptions and the merchandise and the captive advertising demographic.
All of the money that is frittered on sky-high salaries and inflated transfer fees and inexplicable agents’ commissions: It all, ultimately, comes from fans. Fans make it all add up. Fans keep the show on the road.
And it is fans, now, who have realized that means they can make it stop, too: an abortive idea for a league here, so why not a major fixture there? They have, suddenly, rediscovered their power.
The irony of all this, of course, will be lost on the Glazers, and all the owners like them. It was soccer’s easily monetized fanaticism that drew them to the game in the first place, and that eventually convinced them that their harebrained superleague scheme could work. The fans, they assumed, would go with them. They did not.
And now, that same force is aligned against them. The methods it chooses cannot always be condoned. But the message is clear, and it is one that soccer would do well to heed.
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Post by kstandhand on May 7, 2021 12:11:07 GMT
From twiter.
Anonymous #mufc fans' group statement:
"Every United fan has now seen the power they collectively hold. Last Sunday’s protests need to be a beginning, not an end. The Premier League and the Glazers are terrified the Liverpool fixture could be affected again."
"It’s our responsibility to make sure it is. The protesters at The Lowry undertook a five-hour stint. That’s the sort of action required, but all contributions are of help. Next Thursday there needs to be 10,000+ at Old Trafford, from 5pm onwards."
Do your bit, play your part, don’t leave it to others. Help make the Glazers history.”
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Post by Deez on May 7, 2021 13:52:23 GMT
To play is to fail 13/05/21
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Post by Deez on May 7, 2021 13:52:59 GMT
Also statement from the parasites expected 3pm
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Post by Carbon on May 7, 2021 13:55:43 GMT
Also statement from the parasites expected 3pm
Raising ticket prices next year no doubt
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Post by Stretty on May 7, 2021 13:59:01 GMT
I’m going next Thursday and I call on every other united fan to go the extra mile to attend.
We can’t let this opportunity slip
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Post by kstandhand on May 7, 2021 14:03:34 GMT
I’m going next Thursday and I call on every other united fan to go the extra mile to attend. We can’t let this opportunity slip Well said,it's now or never! |
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Post by kstandhand on May 7, 2021 14:05:22 GMT
The statement is a load of bluff & bollocks & clearly reaffirms that they really haven't got a fucking clue!
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Post by ratbag on May 7, 2021 14:15:39 GMT
The following letter has been sent by Joel Glazer, Manchester United Executive Co-Chairman, to members of our Fans’ Forum today...
Dear Fan Representatives,
Thank you for your letter dated April 30, sent in your capacity as representatives of Manchester United fans. I read the contents closely and your love and passion for the club came across very clearly.
I want to salute your service to the Fans’ Forum, which I know is a vital channel for consultation between the club and our fans. As I recently stated publicly, I am personally committed to ensuring that we strengthen this relationship in future.
Your heartfelt letter captured the unique spirit of Manchester United, forged through decades of triumph, adversity and tragedy, and still powerfully present in today’s exciting team under Ole and the vibrant fanbase which you represent.
I was personally humbled by parts of your letter, as you explained so clearly why our initial support for the European Super League left you feeling angry and let down. I would like to reiterate my sincere apology for the mistakes that were made.
In particular, I want to acknowledge the need for change, with deeper consultation with you as our main fan representative body across a range of important issues, including the competitions we play in. We also recognise the importance of fan and football interests being embedded in key decision-making processes at every level of the club, and we are open to constructive discussions on how to reinforce that principle.
Joel Glazer has written of his ambition to transform United’s relationship with fans and increase investment.
We remain committed to working with the wider football community to make the game stronger and more sustainable over the long-term, and we will now refocus our efforts on doing this within the existing structures of UEFA and the Premier League.
In addition, I want to reassure you that my family and I care deeply about Manchester United and feel a profound sense of responsibility to protect and enhance its strength for the long-term, while respecting its values and traditions.
Our top priority is, and will always be, competing for the most important trophies, playing entertaining football with a team comprised of top-quality recruits and some of the world’s best homegrown talent. Under Ole, we feel we are absolutely on the right track.
Success on the field must be underpinned by solid foundations off it. We have supported sustained investment in the team over many years, and that will continue this summer.
We recognise that we will need to significantly increase investment in Old Trafford and our training complex to ensure that the club’s facilities remain among the best in Europe. As part of this, we will consult with fans on investments related to the stadium and the matchday experience.
Indeed, one of the clearest lessons of the past few weeks is the need for us to become better listeners. To this end, I can commit the club will engage across all of the issues raised in your letter.
To highlight some specific points, as one of the few European football clubs listed on the public markets, we believe in the principle of fans owning shares in the club. We have previously engaged with the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust on fan share ownership and we want to continue and accelerate those discussions, together with provisions to enhance associated fan consultation.
We recognise that the Government-initiated, fan-led review of football is a positive opportunity to explore new structures for fan engagement and influence. I can assure you that we will willingly and openly engage in the review, with the aim of putting fans at the heart of the game and ensuring their interests are advanced and protected.
These commitments are a starting point for further dialogue, including all the specific points you raised, rather than final proposals. We want to work together to come up with an ambitious package of measures which will transform our relationship with fans and strengthen the club for the long-term. In this spirit, we will reach out to members of the forum to schedule a meeting in which I shall participate as soon as possible after the final game of the season.
Thank you again for your work for the forum and your passion for the club. I look forward to meeting you and in the meantime let’s look forward to a successful end to the season.
With best regards,
Joel Glazer
Executive Co-Chairman and Director
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Post by ratbag on May 7, 2021 14:19:52 GMT
That statement doesn't and shouldn't change a thing...the only way to get to the Glazers is through the sponsors...more pressure on the sponsors via an all out attack on social media and more pressure on game day...more demonstrations...maybe the Leicester game won't get played...
I'm not saying we have them on the run as they really don't want to shift but by not giving up, we can show them that it might be better to cash in and fuck off...
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Post by kstandhand on May 7, 2021 14:22:39 GMT
That statement doesn't and shouldn't change a thing...the only way to get to the Glazers is through the sponsors...more pressure on the sponsors via an all out attack on social media and more pressure on game day...more demonstrations...maybe the Leicester game won't get played... I'm not saying we have them on the run as they really don't want to shift but by not giving up, we can show them that it might be better to cash in and fuck off... They are seriously rattled & flapping like fuck...keep the hammer down on the cunts! |
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Post by ratbag on May 7, 2021 14:37:28 GMT
That statement doesn't and shouldn't change a thing...the only way to get to the Glazers is through the sponsors...more pressure on the sponsors via an all out attack on social media and more pressure on game day...more demonstrations...maybe the Leicester game won't get played... I'm not saying we have them on the run as they really don't want to shift but by not giving up, we can show them that it might be better to cash in and fuck off... They are seriously rattled & flapping like fuck...keep the hammer down on the cunts! Agreed...if they weren't flapping, we wouldn't have had any kind of statement... |
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Post by Deez on May 7, 2021 14:41:38 GMT
I'm not even reading what his team of PR execs have cobbled together. If we let our foot off their throats now then we'll never be taken seriously again.
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