AC Milan’s David Beckham puts on a green and yellow scarf in support of the anti-Glazer protest after losing to Manchester United in their Champions League first knockout round second leg soccer match at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England.
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“…More than perhaps anyone else on the planet, David Beckham knows that pictures speak louder than words. A man covered in tattoos, and with a keen sense of the way in which his every action will be interpreted by the media, is hardly likely to have been ignorant of the symbolism of draping a green and gold scarf around his neck before disappearing down the tunnel at Old Trafford last night – no matter what he said post-match about it being a gesture of support for the team rather than the Red Knights.
The unexpected boost from Beckham, and a picture that immediately supplanted Wayne Rooney on the back pages, capped a night that could hardly have gone better for the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, the group co-ordinating the green and gold protests and attempting to galvanise support for the Red Knights.
They managed to quell talk of what may have been a divisive and cack-handed protest – staying away from Old Trafford for the first 10 minutes of the match – and instead, with the game won, unleashed wave after wave of highly vocal anti-Glazer chants and a series of banners that will have been received loud and clear by the global TV audience.
That is significant given that one of their most pressing tasks is to take the message to United’s global fanbase – nebulously put at 333 million in the recent bond offer documents – that is the other engine of the Glazers’ plans to continue to boost revenues at the club. As well as raising ticket prices and expanding the number of corporate hospitality packages on offer, the Glazers’ plan is to increase vastly the number and value of global sponsorship packages on offer in the hope of continuing to bring in enough money to both keep the team winning and draw down the millions required to pay off their high interest hedge-fund loans secured on their shareholding.
But while the Must PR drive, which has now signed up more than 128,000 members (an increase of around 80,000 since news of the Red Knights plans leaked), appears to be proving successful, that will only take them so far. Their plan, so far well realised, has been to keep the campaign positive and inclusive in spirit.
The Red Knights plan will move into a new phase today when they announce the appointment of the Japanese investment bank Nomura. Must has provided the platform, now it is up to the Knights – led by the Goldman Sachs chief economist, the former United board member and friend of Sir Alex Ferguson Jim O’Neill – to show their hand.”
