Look Who Is Talking

The New YorK Times counts the ways how English soccer fans hate Malcolm Glazer, the billionaire businessman who this week took control of Manchester United, one of the world's most famous soccer teams

'No offense, but it just smacks of imperialism,' said John Marchant, a 28-year-old advertising executive and Manchester United fan. 'He stands for everything that's bad about globalization.'

Perhaps the fans have forgetten that the British Empire was built on imperialism, actually the the British are still imperialists.

Manchester United, is a global brand, Mr. Glazer may be interested in the franchise because of its international appeal, some analysts have speculated in the months leading up to the takeover.

My question is "how many international Manchester United fans object to Mr.Glazer taking control of the club?" This statement may shade some light;

"It's kind of ironic, really, because the mythology about United survived its early commercialization," said John Williams, director of the Center for the Sociology of Sport at the University of Leicester. "It's always inhabited an uneasy space between on the one hand being a successful, global commercial project, and on the other hand being this great national institution that nobody owned."

Mr Glazer's local newspaper has poured more scorn on the Manchester United fans. Writing in The Tampa Tribune, the columnist Daniel Ruth called Manchester United "the world's foremost collection of men in their underwear playing the most boring sport on the face of the planet."

"In the annals of people who really, really need to get a life," he added, Manchester United fans "probably fall somewhere between Civil War re-enactors and those folks who show up at 'Star Trek' conventions dressed as Vulcans."

Clearly The Tampa Tribune does not fully understand the passion that this club generates. People who do not particularly like Manchester United will be hoping this guy ruins them. It is like being of victim of your own success.