Manchester United fans in Philadelphia have claimed that the club have censored them in their protests against the Glazers.
According to Daily Mail, The 1958, a self titled “underground group of reds intent on upholding the values of Manchester United, its culture and traditions”, made the claim after planned protests at a recent fan event.
The supporters group have said that American sports broadcaster NBC are at the centre of the censoring, going on to accuse the TV network of telling them they would not be filmed if they went ahead with their anti-Glazer protests.
The group say that they were contacted by United and told that “NBC would not broadcast or share any material which perpetuated any Glazer Out rhetoric”.
The planned protest against United owner Avram Grant was due to take place at NBC Sports Premier League Fan Fest in Philadelphia’s city centre on October 15 and 16.
The Reds’ recent match with Newcastle was shown at the event, live on a big screen from Old Trafford, and the whole event was shown across America on streaming platforms as well as TV and social media.
But because of the owners’ fears around the negative impact of the Green and Gold visual protest, as well as banners, the fan group are claiming that the censorship of them was “clearly a pressure tactic from the club to dampen fan protests”.
A statement from MUST (Manchester United Supporters Trust) read “to silence our rights as United supporters to protest against the Glazer ownership. We have heard and experienced all this before, right?”
“Our fellow fans in the States decided that they will continue to don Green and Gold and take their banners to the fest. However, as expected little or no coverage was available on the NBC official channels.
With former United and USA goalkeeper Tim Howard in attendance, as well as many other ex players, fans had hopes of adding to the potential negative impact felt by the current owners, and feel that the Glazers and the broadcasters have pre-empted them from doing so.
And with the club pressurising media outlets amidst fears of further damaging the club owners dividend payments, the supporters are angered at this treatment.
But as the fan group quite rightly pointed out, ‘all this leads to one conclusion. Visual protests do have a big impact on this ownership”.
