The start of taking back control?

As the rollercoaster of 2021 comes to an end, now is as good a time as any to remind ourselves just how much has happened in the year gone by and take stock of where we are right now.

Whilst events on the field haven’t progressed as any of us would have hoped, off the pitch there are at least some green shoots which mean that as we enter 2022 there is at least the prospect of real change in football and at United, after a long time when we fans have felt marginalised and sidelined.

This is a pretty long newsletter so if you don’t have time to read it all here’s the short version:

Covid has been terrible for everyone. It’s great we’re back in the grounds and we probably can’t stop games being called-off but fans need proper notice of postponements.
The ESL was a disgrace. But has catalysed some positive things to happen. We need to make the most of this unique post-ESL opportunity.
The government review of football was positive – but needs to be implemented in full. We need to keep the pressure up.
The Share Scheme and Advisory Board offer the chance of a bigger influence for fans – but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
And standing has come back to Old Trafford, hallelujah! We’ve proved it works and it should be expanded to give the choice to all those who want it.

Now here’s the longer version…

The bloody C wordThere was a huge amount of Covid disruption for fans in 2021, from games behind closed doors and 10,000 capped crowds to the eventual return of fans en masse.

Problems are far from over given we are now seeing increasing numbers of postponements and new restrictions on entering the ground. Given it is government policy, the Club has no alternative but to comply with the turnstile checks and our focus is on arguing that fans’ needs should be at the front of mind when postponements are considered. There were hours of dithering over the postponement of the Brentford game and it’s been even worse at other clubs with Villa v Burnley called off just a few hours before kick-off. That’s not good enough and cannot happen again.

And on Covid checks at the turnstiles, we are waiting to see how this pans out and issues it may cause for fans in order to ensure it can be operated as smoothly as possible, but in our recent members survey it does seem the vast majority (70%) of fans do support the need for this requirement right now.

Stopping their not-so Super League18 April 2021 is a date that should live in football infamy. Because that’s when the ultimate conclusion of the greed of the owners of the biggest clubs came into broad daylight, as United and eleven other clubs announced they were forming their own closed-shop “Super League”.

Fans groups all over Europe reacted with unity and – perhaps for the first time – showed what power we can exercise. The ESL was killed off within a couple of days and a whole series of things were set in motion which gives us the grounds for optimism which we have today.

More about those in a moment, but first no look back on the year would be complete without reflecting on the Liverpool home game back in May. The ESL debacle reminded so many people of the change we need at United and thousands gathered on the forecourt before the ‘behind-closed-doors’ game to make their voice heard. Exactly what happened next is a matter of debate – and indeed court proceedings so we need to be very careful here. Of course we have only ever supported lawful and peaceful actions and we cannot condone any acts of violence. Nevertheless what it did demonstrate was the massive strength of feeling amongst reds and made it clear we cannot go on as we are and showed the owners that no change was no longer an option.

As we stand, there are still United fans facing prosecution for events on that day. We simply cannot make a public statement about the merits of the cases against them. But we have previously shared and supported a fund for those who want to help fund their defence. Everyone deserves a fair trial and a proper defence, and if you want to help them then you can donate HERE.

Holding the Government’s feet to the fireThe ESL plan had the benefit of forcing the government to launch what they called a “Fan-Led Review” of football governance. MUST engaged fully in the review process and – with one significant caveat – were pretty pleased with the outcome. The caveat is the failure of the Review to make any recommendations which will make it easier for fans to buy an ownership stake in their clubs. That’s a big missed opportunity.

But there are many positives. The plan for a football regulator with oversight over club finances, governance, fit and proper directors and the like is welcome. But at the moment it is just a plan. In 2022, we’ll be working with other supporters’ trusts and football fan bodies to make sure the government delivers on it.

Building a bigger influence for fans at UnitedThe government stuff is important because it is this which puts pressure on our owners in terms of the things they need to do to create a bigger fans’ voice at United.

Turning to that, we continue to negotiate with the club over our most long-standing demand – that supporters be allowed to buy shares in United with the same voting rights as the Glazers own shares. Big progress has been made in recent months, but we’re not quite there yet.

If we do reach agreement with the Club on a Fans Share Scheme, then the decision on whether MUST should proceed with it will rest with you – MUST’s members. But, in principle, we think this could offer the best route towards, over the long-term, building up a meaningful supporters’ share stake in Manchester United, which is the best guarantee of the club being run with the interests of supporters at heart.

The other post-ESL initiative was the Club’s commitment to create a Fans Advisory Board (FAB). The FAB membership was announced a few weeks ago and has its first meeting next month. Several prominent MUST members, and both our Chairman and Chief Executive, are represented on the Board.

Will the FAB have real influence over the direction of the club? Truth be told, we don’t know. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. But it’s our best chance yet of getting supporter voices at the top table. And if it turns out to be a talking shop, we’ll be the first to call that out.

Standing up for United fansWhilst the year has been dominated by the football politics that fell out from the ESL, we’ve continued to fight hard on the bread and butter issues that matter to match-going reds.

For years we campaigned for standing to return to Old Trafford. And back it finally is, in J Stand initially and with that proving a success we’re determined to push for it to be extended to more parts of Old Trafford including the Stretford End. It’s not about saying everyone must stand – it’s about giving everyone a choice so that every red can enjoy the game in the way they want.

We’ve also done lots of work with the club to iron-out the initial teething troubles with e-tickets. It was a shambles in the first couple of months and we took up countless cases with the club. Fortunately, it does seem to be working much better now and people are getting used to the new system.

MUST’s work supporting local Community FoodbanksAs well as our work for United fans, we at MUST have always believed in giving something back to the community, and we first set up our MUFC Fans’ Foodbank in Feb 2018 with matchday collection of donations of non-perishable food items and cash from fans attending home games.

When the pandemic hit and we went to behind closed door games we switched to online cash donations through a gofundme appeal set up in March 2020 and later we added our own online foodbank prize draws. The gofundme appeal has passed £53k from that appeal alone.

In April 2020 we also added a dedicated Foodbank Fundraising Prize Draw to our existing biweekly MUST members’ prize draw. Members can take part here www.imust.org.uk/Competition with all funds raised from the Foodbank draws going to local foodbanks and fans get a chance to win Manchester United signed memorabilia.

We’ve raised almost £20k so far through these prize draws and we’ve just made our latest donation payment of £5k on Christmas Day.

We’ve also had some prizes donated by Manchester United Foundation and we’re about to open the prize draw for the latest such donation to win a signed pennant and a shirt signed by the entire first team including Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes etc. We expect that to be our biggest draw ever so keep an eye on the prize draws page here and the Twitter accounts: @mufcfoodbank and @MUST_Prize_Draw

We are also working with Manchester United Foundation on a number of initiatives including a special Christmas campaign with Fare Share (Marcus Rashford’s chosen charity) which will also result in major donations to our local partner foodbanks too.

Looking ahead to 2022So we end the year with at least some cautious grounds for optimism. Because 2021 created the conditions for greater fan influence at United and in football more generally. But that will amount to nothing if we don’t now make it happen – and that’s what 2022 must be about. We’ve had big promises from the government and from the Glazers – next year is about holding their feet to the fire.

This has been a long year-end newsletter to mark the end of a very busy year. And we’ve barely even mentioned what has happened on the pitch. Perhaps because right now it feels pretty depressing. After Liverpool and City, and Watford and Newcastle, we demand better. You can blame the managers or you can blame the players, but between them they’ve got to sort this out. There’s 75,000 of us in the stands who’d quite like to take their places so, come on lads, give us a better 2022 than the massive let-down 2021 ended-up. That would make all of our lives just that bit happier.

The final word though, goes to the man who gave us the impossible dream in the first place, Sir Alex Ferguson. Sir Alex turns 80 today. A remarkable milestone for a remarkable man. Thanks for all the good times, Sir Alex, and have a very happy birthday.

From the team at MUST, we wish you all a very happy new year.