Manchester United plan to change club badge and return 'Football Club' in effort to dispel Glazer business belief
Term was removed from the badge in 1998 but United's owners now plan to reintroduce it to try and win over fans that they are not just about business
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester United are hoping to change their club badge by restoring the words ‘Football Club’ 15 years after removing it in a hope of dispelling the belief that the Glazer family are only interested in business rather than their rich history.
Owner Joel Glazer is behind the plans to alter the crest which was last redesigned in 1998, when ‘Football Club’ was removed from the original badge.
Chief Executive Ed Woodward has confirmed that that United have reservations over the current badge, which was introduced seven years before the Glazers took control of the club.
“I didn’t like that change of badge,” said Woodward. “Joel didn’t like that change. We will look at that and have a think about that. We are a football club, not a business.
“I described it to our staff that we are a 135-year-old club and that’s what you have to remember,” continued Woodward. “We are a football club, a club with a capital C.
“Strapped to that is a commercial business that’s going to fund a lot of the player purchases going forward here and we have to be supportive of both.
“We’ve got to make sure they co-exist together but don’t impact each other and that’s where we are trying to balance it.”
United were ridiculed when they removed the term from the badge that had stood for 43 years, with the reason being it was easier to digitally reproduce it with ‘Manchester United’ in bigger letters.
The Glazer family – made up of three brothers who effectively run the club after their father Malcolm purchased it – have come under heavy criticism from sections of the Old Trafford faithful for building up the club’s debt, although both Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes have praised them for their work.
United’s valuation has soared beyond £1bn but despite interest from bidders in China and Qatar, Woodward insists that the Glazer's have no intention of selling the club.
“They are long-term owners, together with our other shareholders,” he admitted. “They first bought the club eight years ago and there won’t be any change for many, many years.”
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