United fans march to Old Trafford to protest club's ownership

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United fans marched to Old Trafford to protest the club's ownership on Sunday in the face of ticket price rises, job cuts and onfield decline.

Thousands of supporters gathered for a pre-arranged demonstration ahead of the Premier League game against Arsenal, with lit flares and raised banners demanding a change of ownership at the record 20-time English champion.

Fans were asked to wear black in “solidarity,” and they marched through the streets surrounding United's Old Trafford ground and up to the stadium before kickoff.

The protest, organized by fan group The 1958, came just over a year since British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe bought into the storied team and vowed to return it to the summit of European soccer.

Some fans chanted in protest against Ratcliffe, while others held up banners demanding the club's majority-owning Glazer family sell up.

Job cuts

Both Ratcliffe and director Edward Glazer were in attendance for the match.

Fans have long campaigned to drive out the American Glazer family, which also also owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Fans have been critical of the leveraged nature of the Glazers’ buyout for 790 million pounds (then about $1.4 billion) in 2005 that loaded debt onto the club.

Ratcliffe, a boyhood fan and owner of petrochemicals giant Ineos, paid $1.3 billion for an initial 25% stake in the club last year, but has overseen a turbulent period of major cost cutting and record underperformance on the field.

United said last month that up to 200 roles would go in a latest round of cuts, following the loss of around 250 last year.

Managerial great Alex Ferguson's lucrative ambassadorial role will also go at the end of the season, while United raised its lowest-priced tickets to 66 pounds ($81) partway through the campaign, up from 40 pounds ($49).

On the field, United is languishing in the bottom half of the standings after 12 losses in the league, following its worst ever Premier League campaign last term. The second-tier Europa League is its only chance of silverware this season and a route back into the Champions League.

Loyal fans

One banner read: “RIP FAN CULTURE.”

Fan group The Red Army posted on X that “we should all get behind these protests, once our fan culture has been destroyed, there’ll be nothing left worth fighting for.”

Supporter and author John Ludden wrote in an emotionally worded blog that the Glazers and now Ineos were operating “ignorant of what they represent”.

Inside the stadium a banner was raised that read: “Stop exploiting loyalty.”

Even after United took the lead through a first-half goal from captain Bruno Fernandes, cheers were quickly followed by chants of “Glazers out!”

United did not comment on the protest when contacted by The Associated Press.

The match ended 1-1.

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer