Man U are paying £69m interest a year on their debts.

[Guest alex]

my heart bleeds

I'd rather it happened to Liverpool than them. Man Utd are a proper club, with a proper local fanbase like us, unlike them.

 

 

ManU are, and always have been, one of the worst influences in football

 

Most of their fans have never lived in Manchester and they are so cocky and arrogant its unbeleivable

 

at least the scousers belong there and they have a sense of humour

Pretty sure Man Utd have one of the highest proportions of match going fans living within close proximity of the ground. And seriously, name 5 funny Scousers. I bet you're onto Stan Boardman or Ken Dodd before you get past number 3.

[Guest Tuco Ramirez]

my heart bleeds

I'd rather it happened to Liverpool than them. Man Utd are a proper club, with a proper local fanbase like us, unlike them.

 

 

ManU are, and always have been, one of the worst influences in football

 

Most of their fans have never lived in Manchester and they are so cocky and arrogant its unbeleivable

 

at least the scousers belong there and they have a sense of humour

Everything you've said there is an uninformed myth. Never had a good conversation with a scouser. We had a scouse keeper in my first pub team from Birkenhead, and to be fair he was ok, but he'd been to jail. Man Utd have at least 60000 local match going fans, to deny that proves what a mong you are. Man Utd away games where they have 7000 plus fans are a different matter tho esp in London.

[Happy Face 29]

Manchester United's American owners are to pay off their high interest payment-in-kind (PIK) loans, estimated to be worth about £220m.

 

The loans were borrowed from three US hedge funds to help finance the Glazer family's £790m takeover in 2005.

 

The BBC understands the club's joint chairman Joel Glazer has written to the lenders and said the loan would be paid in full on Monday, 22 November.

 

The football club's total debts are estimated at more than £720m.

 

It is not yet clear how the Glazer family were able to raise the money to pay off the PIK loans.

 

They are understood to have given the Citadel, Och Ziff and Perry Capital hedge funds seven days' notice of the repayment.

 

The PIK loans were significantly reduced as part of a refinancing package in 2006 but since then have been accruing interest at extremely punitive rates.

 

Earlier this year the rate rose to 16.25% and although the Glazers are liable for the debt, supporters have long suspected money from the club would eventually be used to start paying them off.

 

As part of a £526m bond refinancing in January, the Glazers were given the freedom to take up to £70m from the club's revenues to pay down the PIKs.

 

The Glazer family borrowed the money from three hedge funds and by notifying the lenders they intend to pay them off in full next Monday, the Glazers will reduce the financial pressure on the club.

 

The club's parent company, Red Football Limited, is due to publish financial results for the first quarter on Tuesday, but those figures are not expected to include details of how the PIKs, which sit on the accounts of Red Football Joint Venture Ltd, have been redeemed.

 

Despite making a £79.6m pre tax loss for the last financial year, mainly due to one off interest and debt charges, United generated revenues of £278m and have more than £100m of cash reserves.

 

But taking money from the club at a time when many supporters feel there should be more investment in the team will only add to the opposition to the Glazers at Old Trafford.

 

If the money has not been taken out in that way then the Glazers may have borrowed the money from other financial institutions at more affordable rates to refinance the PIKs.

 

United had no debts before the Glazers, who also own American Football side the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, took control in 2005.

 

And their ownership of United has provoked much criticism and resulted in the setting up of breakaway fans' club FC United of Manchester and the Green and Gold protest movement.

 

Many fans are continuing to boycott the team's traditional red shirts and scarves, choosing to wear green and gold, the original colours of Newton Heath, the amateur side which was founded in 1878 and went on to become Manchester United.

 

A mass protest was held outside Old Trafford before the final game of last season and this season has also seen demonstrations.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...utd/9192771.stm

[Rob W 0]

Probably swapping Irish bonds for the PIK...................

[LeazesMag 0]

my heart bleeds

I'd rather it happened to Liverpool than them. Man Utd are a proper club, with a proper local fanbase like us, unlike them.

 

 

ManU are, and always have been, one of the worst influences in football

 

Most of their fans have never lived in Manchester and they are so cocky and arrogant its unbeleivable

 

at least the scousers belong there and they have a sense of humour

Everything you've said there is an uninformed myth. Never had a good conversation with a scouser. We had a scouse keeper in my first pub team from Birkenhead, and to be fair he was ok, but he'd been to jail. Man Utd have at least 60000 local match going fans, to deny that proves what a mong you are. Man Utd away games where they have 7000 plus fans are a different matter tho esp in London.

 

that is true. It's a myth that most of ManU fans live outside Manchester. Manchester is a split city with 2 big clubs who all support either of the 2 clubs. ManU have a huge worldwide following on top of that because they have been successful. If we had won things under Keegan we would also have gone from strength to strength and as a 1 club city could command exclusive huge local support automatically as well as the popular outside support.

[Guest alex]

Man Utd do have a lot of out of towners but that's just a result of their success down the years going back to '68 and probably Munich '58 too. They're normally fucking clueless and barely have an interest in football in my experience. Those people don't, by and large, go to the games though. I think there was a survey and they had (going back maybe 7 or 8 years) the highest proportion of fans at home games living within a 3 mile radius or something. I still hate them like

[manc-mag 1]

Anyone in any doubt as to how many match going Man U fans come from out of Manchester want to spend a shift at Manchester airport prior to a matchday. It's not even funny.

 

Course theres loads from Manchester but theres loads from everywhere tbh.

[manc-mag 1]

And the hotel trade wouldn't be anywhere near as prosperous without it either which tells a story too.

[Guest alex]

Anyone in any doubt as to how many match going Man U fans come from out of Manchester want to spend a shift at Manchester airport prior to a matchday. It's not even funny.

 

Course theres loads from Manchester but theres loads from everywhere tbh.

Loads come from Belfast like, which nullifies my previous point a bit Don't really mind that like. It's the utterly clueless types who 'support' them that I can't abide.

[LeazesMag 0]

Anyone in any doubt as to how many match going Man U fans come from out of Manchester want to spend a shift at Manchester airport prior to a matchday. It's not even funny.

 

Course theres loads from Manchester but theres loads from everywhere tbh.

 

course there is loads from everywhere else.

 

I went to the match in 1988 though when they played Wimbledon and Old Trafford was only about half full, because I was spending a few weeks working there, I went with my landladies son and his girlfriend who were ManU fans. It's success that gets them in. This kid was an arrogant fucker, he thought they were going to buy Gazza at the time and insisted Liverpool had no right to win "their" title all the time.

 

Apart from that, he was OK

[manc-mag 1]

Anyone in any doubt as to how many match going Man U fans come from out of Manchester want to spend a shift at Manchester airport prior to a matchday. It's not even funny.

 

Course theres loads from Manchester but theres loads from everywhere tbh.

Loads come from Belfast like, which nullifies my previous point a bit Don't really mind that like. It's the utterly clueless types who 'support' them that I can't abide.

 

Thing is what I will concede is this: there'd no doubt be a demand for a lot of the OOT tickets from Manchester based fans anyway if the OOT's didnt come. There's plenty of local fans that are simply priced out and you can only imagine the OOT's by and large are in a higher wage bracket, as they've got travel costs etc on top as well.

 

I know everyone outside Manchester seems to detest City but in all seriousness (and even to this day) they have a massive grass roots community role as a club. You only have to see that in the facilities they've left behind them at Moss Side even though they're no longer based on that side of the city. The two clubs couldn't be any less alike and for all Stevie bangs on about Man U being a 'proper' club and having class (or whatever all that means), at the end of the day they are unique in British football in that they have unprecedented revenues from people who have no connection whatever with the city (OOT fans worldwide) and this isnt primarily to do with success, it's to do with everything that surrounded Munich and that one particular team. Additionally, and which cannot ever be underestimated, they have a national and international press which is basically the biggest unpaid PR machine in corporate history. It all puts them at a massive commercial advantage and makes it a piece of piss to follow them as a fan (even when things arent going well you have a largely sympathetic press commiserating with you and lamenting a season without a league title bless their hearts) cf that to the stick and ridicule other clubs get (though I would accept in our case we deserved a lot of it with a lot of how Shepherd conducted himself).

 

I hate them like so I admit there's bias at work, but the way Ferguson bangs on about City trying to buy the title (or words to that effect, if it's not them it's only Chelsea after all) just makes him look a cock because it's not like Man U are under resourced in any way, it just happens to be by a different means.

[Guest alex]

Both before and after what was effectively the fruits of one (more or less) FA Youth Cup winning side Ferguson has bought the success he's had at Man Utd anyway. Fair play to him for doing so like but as you say he's a hypocrite on that score. My main beef with City is that for all the money they're dull as ditchwater. Good luck to them I say, the title race needed a new contender.

[Billy Castell 0]

It has been suggested that the Glazers have used new loans to pay the expensive PIK loans. Is it just me or taking out loans to pay other loans not a great strategy? They'll be onto that Quickquid soon. And we can all dance around the fires like wild loons.

[Happy Face 29]

It has been suggested that the Glazers have used new loans to pay the expensive PIK loans. Is it just me or taking out loans to pay other loans not a great strategy? They'll be onto that Quickquid soon. And we can all dance around the fires like wild loons.

 

If you can transfer a loan to someone else offering a lower interest rate, that's always a good strategy to take.

[LeazesMag 0]

Both before and after what was effectively the fruits of one (more or less) FA Youth Cup winning side Ferguson has bought the success he's had at Man Utd anyway. Fair play to him for doing so like but as you say he's a hypocrite on that score. My main beef with City is that for all the money they're dull as ditchwater. Good luck to them I say, the title race needed a new contender.

 

ironic, that Kevin Keegan ie "won nowt Kev" would have done a damn sight better job of spending the money Mancini has had and created an attractive team there and won things.

 

Such is life

 

I don't suppose the southern press will even think of this, much less print it.

[Kid Dynamite 7182]

I wouldn't be suprised if man utd go into free fall when fergie leaves. Mountains of debt, giggs, neville, scholes, van der sar retiring, rooney a shadow of his former self, the new kids coming through look average at best ... could be bad times ahead!

[The Fish 10972]

I wouldn't be suprised if man utd go into free fall when fergie leaves. Mountains of debt, giggs, neville, scholes, van der sar retiring, rooney a shadow of his former self, the new kids coming through look average at best ... could be bad times ahead!

I'm hoping for this.

 

It's Man U though.