Thaindian News

London, Mar. 23 (ANI): In the last five years, Manchester United have won a hat-trick of Premier League titles and reached two Champions League finals, and this year, remain on course for a Treble, but all is not well at Old Trafford.

The club has an estimated 50 million fans worldwide, arguably the biggest on the planet, and should be rolling in cash and spending millions on the world’s greatest players to entertain the bumper 76,000 crowds that carry on packing into Old Trafford.

But the story is more than depressing.

The club’s American owners - the Glazer family - are so deeply in debt, that the prospect of United spending big on players has increasingly become a fantasy in the Theatre of Dreams.

Depressing figures released yesterday show United lost 108.9 million dollars over the last financial year to June 2010.

Which means instead of new stars, the monies United fans help generate are now financing the huge debts from the Glazer takeover.

United have been milked of around 400 million pounds in interest payments and charges since the Americans took control in 2005.

In that same time, only 56 million pounds has been reinvested in the team.

Under the Glazers, the average season ticket in Old Trafford’s South Stand has gone up from around 500 to 930 pounds.

This is clear proof that the fans have been hit hardest under the Americans’ ownership.

Duncan Drasdo, the chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters Trust, has been voicing his anger for many years over how supporters have been hit in the pocket to finance the Glazer regime.

Drasdo said: “It sickens people that they are paying increased ticket prices every season under the Glazers but the money is just being wasted and not invested in the playing squad.”

Chief executive David Gill insists there is certainly no pressure on to sell players and they are in the market to buy. (ANI)