| Victory can't hide United's financial dangers |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|04:32 pm] |
If ever a side grabbed a derby match by the throat, threatening to strange the life out of its opponents and subdue the usual swirling emotions, it was surely Manchester United in the first 45 minutes at the City of Manchester stadium today.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side dissected their city rivals with the cool precision of a surgeon, opening them up with neat efficiency. They could hardly have made a more eloquent statement about the differing standards pertaining to these two famous old clubs. There was a fizz, a dynamism and vibrancy about United’s play that seemed beyond the compass of City. United had pace, penetration and a swag full of ideas; City, by contrast, appeared disturbingly limited in their precision and execution. A damage limitation exercise seemed their only ambition, a ploy imperilled by Wayne Rooney’s goal just before half time.
Yet what you see is sometimes not what you get. The contrasts here were not just on the field but in the respective boardrooms, off it. And a study of the off field circumstances suggests pretty emphatically that United’s long term prospects look as alarming as City’s did in the first half on the field in this game.
The borrowing commitment of the Glazer family in securing Manchester United is frightening, calculated at £650 million. That debt, now loaded onto the club, will increase close to £950 million within five years unless it is paid off in that time. With interest rates of 20% on some of that money, it is surely appropriate to argue that no United player will confront so serious an adversary on a football field any time soon.
Were it not for their famous light blue shirts, you could say Manchester City appear to be in the pink by comparison. City are owned by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich Gulf state. Abu Dhabi, currently awash with cash, is the richest of the seven emirates that comprise the UAE. Its wealth originates from oil and gas and most of the state’s wealth is held in the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, worth $800 billion (about £444 billion).
The owners of Manchester City are members of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich Gulf state. The Al-Nahyan family’s total holdings are said to be worth at least $26 billion (about £14.4 billion). Thus, paying Robinho an estimated £160,000 a week represents loose change for people with pockets this deep.
Might there not be people in the Old Trafford boardroom privately jealous of such a propitious financial position at their rivals’ club? And in a financial climate such as this, who can say with traditional footballing largesse, that such matters are of no concern?
How soon might it be before the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, again sent off in a Manchester derby, becomes a decision solely for the club’s bankers rather than their manager?
Perhaps, too, City showed in the second half that their stock is potentially high not only in the boardroom. Their spirited riposte in the last 45 minutes that saw them transformed from abysmal to ebullient, suggested that the addition of two or three classy operators in key positions could radically change the fortunes of what has always been Manchester’s so-called ‘other’ club.
No more the poor relations, whatever the result of this game …
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