Letter sent to Joel Glazer from Lord Jim O’Neil and Sir Paul Marshall:
Dear Joel,
On Thursday of this week, you issued an open letter to Manchester United supporters in response to the outrage at the club’s involvement in a proposed new European Super League. We note that it was the collapse of the idea that prompted your letter, rather than the wisdom of your decision to join. You admitted that “we got it wrong” and went on to say “we want to put things right.
In many ways, this episode is the culmination of your 16 years ownership of the club and is perhaps the strongest example of how you seem to have been persistently out of touch with the culture, spirit, indeed, very purpose of Manchester United.
With this in mind, if you want to put things right, with the entire Manchester United community, including supporters, players, other staff, sponsors and investors, we recommend you undertake the following, with immediate action,
1. Announce to the New York Stock exchange, that you are converting all the equity ownership in Manchester United PLC into one class of shares, each with the same voting rights. This one share-one vote policy, in itself would encourage a broader group of Investors to consider ownership in the club in the future if they have the same voting rights as everyone else, especially you and your five siblings.
2. At the same time, announce a plan to sell your own collective family stake of the newly created equity down to a maximum of 49.9%, allowing other investors, large or small to invest.
3. This offering should be undertaken at a discount to the current trading price, indeed, as a gesture of your desire to do things right, perhaps offering this equity at the Initial IPO price of $14 per share.
4. While this shift of share ownership is underway, you should announce a new supervisory Board on which supporters have 50% plus 1 controlling votes.
5. The new, reserved powers for this supervisory Board would include permission to join any new league or competition, changes in ticket prices, and an annual commitment of £10 mn per year to Manchester based charities.
6. A cessation of future buy backs of shares, unless they are approved by the supervisory Board.
In your letter, you talk about rebuilding trust with the supporters, which presumes there was trust in existence before the events of last week, As you know, others might question whether that trust was ever present. If your stated desire to rebuild trust is sincere, these proposals are the minimum steps you should choose to make.
Yours Sincerely,
Lord Jim O’Neill
Sir Paul Marshall
cc. Avram Glazer.
You can read the Sky New report on this letter here:
‘Red Knights’ demand Glazers loosen Manchester United grip after Super League row
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