Following the European Super League drama, Manchester United is allegedly close to finalizing the plan of a new supporter share system approved by the Glazers.
The club and the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) are said to be in advanced talks over the plan, according to Sky Sports. A new class of stock will be created with the same voting rights as the Glazer family’s B-share class.
After SkySports’s statement, the club added clarity on this topic by releasing a statement on the club’s official website. It read:
“We are in advanced talks with MUST about a Fans’ Share Scheme which would open a path for fans to build, over time, a meaningful ownership stake in Manchester United.
“This would give fans a strong collective voice within our ownership structure and help cement a new spirit of a long-term partnership between fans and the club.
“There are significant legal and regulatory complexities being worked through, together with MUST and expert advisers. As well as making progress on the Fans’ Share Scheme, we are also creating a Fans’ Advisory Board as a new channel for board-level dialogue with supporters and this is close to launching.”
The B-shares in question already have ten times the voting powers of ordinary A-shares that investors purchase. The concept is likely to be formally accepted by the end of the year, according to the article, but Joel Glazer said in June that he hoped a plan would be reached before the start of the current season.
If the Glazers assumed this scheme would take only a few months to complete, it shows how out of touch they are. Negotiations are still ongoing, and neither party believes a sharing scheme is ready to be announced. It was never going to be completed in a single night.
Finally, it is MUST’s responsibility to secure the best possible agreement for United supporters, and we won’t be able to comment until everything is finalized.
The stakes are high, but one thing is certain. Talks are ongoing.
