Source: Daily_Mail
Rip up your tickets! Boycott is only way to get rid of Glazers, says bidder Harris
The man behind a proposed £1billion buy-out of Manchester United has told fans of the Barclays Premier League champions that they must tear up their season tickets and bin their replica shirts if they want to force the Glazer family out of Old Trafford. Football financier and former Football League chairman Keith Harris told Sportsmail on Monday night that he has put together a wealthy, UK-based group who are ready to take United off the Glazers' hands as soon as they receive the slightest encouragement from the Americans - who have loaded the club with £700million of debt - that they are ready to sell. But Harris warned the United supporters, who will flood into Old Trafford wearing their symbolic green and gold scarves and shirts for Tuesday's League match against West Ham, that the only way they can force the Glazers out is to stop spending money on the club and abandon matches. Wayne's World: Keith Harris has urged United fans to vote with their feet 'Turning up to games 10 minutes late and things like that just doesn't do the job,' Harris said. 'The green and gold protest is fabulous, a symbolic and significant message to the owners. It is like the white handkerchiefs in Spain. But that won't force the Glazers to sell to us. 'However, if enough people - and I am talking about thousands - stop turning up to matches and do not renew their tickets, then that does it. The supporters have to hurt the Glazers in their pockets. 'They have to be prepared to take the pain of not watching their club in order to achieve a long-term gain. Supporters have to be galvanised to say, "We will not come. We will not buy programmes and merchandise". Not United: Fans want the Glazer family to sell immediately 'It's a big ask, it's a risk, but that is what must happen. The Glazers are thick-skinned and seem impervious to protest. They will not be impervious to enormous drops in their revenue. 'I would not talk about this if I didn't have full confidence in our ability to raise the money to do this. I never talk publicly unless I have confidence. Getting the money together is the easy bit. 'But we can't make an offer until the Glazers are placed in a position where they are forced to consider it.' Harris grew up as a United supporter, frequenting the family enclosure and then the Stretford End. He has, however, only been to two United home games since the Glazers took the club into private hands in 2005. Supporter unrest: A clear message from one United fan 'One was for the Munich memorial game and one was when I was an invited guest,' he said. 'But I won't go again now.' He will be at Wembley with his wife for the Carling Cup final against Aston Villa on Sunday and may well have his own green and gold scarf - the symbol of supporter defiance against the Glazers - tucked in his pocket in the royal box. It is not yet known if any of the Glazer family will attend the final but if they do Harris wants them to know he is serious. 'I certainly won't approach them there,' he said. 'But if they ever want to talk to me then I am certainly ready.' Realistically, Harris knows a sale will not happen yet. As the chairman of stockbrokers Seymour Pearce, Harris is a respected figure in football, having arranged a number of takeovers, including Randy Lerner's purchase of Aston Villa. Harris knows the Glazers will continue with their increasingly difficult tenure at United for the time being, something that makes him uneasy. 'Supporters should realise that, out of every pound they spend on tickets, 75 pence goes on servicing the debt or satisfying other financial obligations that are incapable of being met by the Glazers,' he said. 'Fans are emotionally concerned and they are right to be. United is a cow being milked of cash for purposes other than replenishing the playing squad. That is deeply wrong, in my opinion. Debt: Manchester United are £700m in the red'Some of the details contained in the recent bond prospectus shocked me. I didn't expect what I saw, such as the amounts the Glazers are allowed to take out of the club each year. 'Do they care for the club? I am not sure about that. But the fact is that they own it. They bought it fairly. It's their toy set. Unless fans vote with their feet, then they may find them here next season and the season after that and beyond. 'In 1998 I was at the Nou Camp with the Barcelona board. The white handkerchiefs were out for the president. But at the next game there were thousands of empty seats. Soon after, he resigned. It can happen.' Recent protests from supporters have also focused on United chief executive David Gill. Fans have accused him of changing his stance on the Glazers in the run-up to their takeover in 2005, something Gill denies. Harris said: 'David Gill is very good at his job. He is well respected in football. I don't know what targets he is set by the Glazers every year but judging by his salary last year he is clearly meeting them. But has all this - the so-called U-turn - affected his reputation with supporters? I suppose it has.' Manchester United and Liverpool fans plan shock joint Old Trafford protest at their American ownersManchester United v WEST HAM: Benni McCarthy unlikely to be fit for Hammers bowManchester United back in the chase for in-demand QPR wonderkid Sterling MANCHESTER UNITED FC