Manchester United legends Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville have both taken to social media to condemn the club for the way they announced their withdrawal from the European Super League.
United, in particular their major shareholders the Glazer family and executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, have been instrumental (some reports claim the ‘ringleaders’) in setting up the widely condemned European Super League, which collapsed after Manchester City and Chelsea signalled their intention to withdraw.
And while Liverpool owner John W Henry issued a filmed apology to all the club’s fans for their part in the power grab, United simply tweeted the words ‘We will not be participating in the European Super League.’
Neville took to Twitter to express his shock at the way the club made the announcement.
‘I’ve read this 3-4 times now,’ he said. ‘Quite possibly the worst communication I’ve ever seen in my life!’
I’ve read this 3-4 times now . Quite possibly the worst communication I’ve ever seen in my life! https://t.co/C0Rc8dsUWq
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) April 21, 2021
Meanwhile Ferdinand posted his own protest on Instagram, pointing at the announcement and saying ‘Taking the p-ss is this. Is that it?’
The club’s official announcement on their website was not much longer. The entire post read as follows:
‘Manchester United will not be participating in the European Super League.
‘We have listened carefully to the reaction from our fans, the UK government and other key stakeholders.
‘We remain committed to working with others across the football community to come up with sustainable solutions to the long-term challenges facing the game.’
The claim that they have ‘listened carefully’ will be hard for fans to take seriously, when the owners of the club were forcibly stopped from doing something that they knew the fans did not want, but were going to do nonetheless.