The president of India’s first official Manchester United Supporters Club (MUSC) has quit after accusing the English football club of stifling his opinion about the way the team is run and of mistreating fans.
Restaurateur Sunil Thakur took to Twitter last week to announce his resignation from the position of MUSC Mumbai, which started 15 years ago as an informal screening for fans in the basement of a Dadar hotel.
The club, which screens the Manchester United matches at Thakur’s 3 Wise Monkeys pub, has grown to more than 300 members over the years. But along the way, it has had to put up with seeing the Red Devils failing to match the dizzying heights reached during the era of their illustrious coach Sir Alex Ferguson.
A membership with the MUSC, which could cost roughly Rs 2,000 for a season, comes with discounts on various merchandise and match tickets, besides the added perk of bragging rights. Many members from the Mumbai club have travelled to Manchester, UK, to watch the team’s matches at the Old Trafford.
Thakur, however, said that he felt reduced to an “agent selling memberships”, because the fans were not allowed to voice their views.
It all started when the MUSC Mumbai handle in June put out a tweet complaining about the lack of improvement in the team’s performance and called for the sacking of club chief executive Ed Woodwards.
Over the years, Woodward has been facing criticism from fans for not getting the right players on board. As executive vice-chairman of Manchester United, he oversees the club’s operation including transfers of new players.
Thakur said he was asked by the club to take down the viral tweet and their access to ticketing was revoked till this was done.
“I felt like an agent who can only ask people to become a member but not express their opinions,” Thakur told CNBC-TV18, soon after quitting.
In his mail to the club, Thakur wrote: “I haven’t been happy with the way our great club has been run. I don’t think we have been doing enough to remain competitive. I don’t want to continue being an agent for the club and help them sell One United memberships”.
The club in its reply was rather curt: "I’ve removed you from the website as you mention you don’t want to continue to be an ‘agent’ which we take to mean your voluntary role connected to Mumbai MUSC."
The club added that it had never heard the word ‘agent’ in connection with a voluntary fan group. "We don’t see supporters’ club organisers as agents, we see them as fans, who for the love of the club have chosen to bring fellow fans together through good times and bad," it said.
Thakur said that for a fan who had given 15 years of his life in running the supporters club, he was disappointed by the club's reaction. He said it was "synonymous with how the club thinks/handles the displeasure of the fans."
"Although the head of ticketing and membership apologized for the incident in a very carefully scripted damage control email, my disillusionment for the club has only grown,” he said.
Thakur found support in fellow Manchester United fan Allen Jacob. Allen has been a fan of the Red Devils since 2008 and he says he regrets whatever happened with Thakur.
“This is unacceptable and this will only draw more anger and hatred from the fans," Allen said.
"As fans, we cannot watch players earn huge sums of money and be social media celebrities. Ed Woodward needs to go. He will never get any love from the fans. In fact, the day he leaves that day will be celebrated by us fans because he just doesn’t know how to run a football club,” he said.
On his part, Thakur said he will remain a fan of the Manchester United team and is optimistic about its prospects.
“Manchester United will bounce back soon and start competing again when these incompetent people are fired and footballing decisions are taken by intelligent people,” he said.
His fondest memories with the club? “Nothing is better than winning. The best moments with the supporters club is winning the Champions League against Chelsea and winning the league against the odds one last time with Sir Alex Ferguson (as coach) ”
He also does not rule out returning to the club as a member. “The day I feel justice has been done to my money and to the club, I will be back,” he said.
First Published: Oct 15, 2020 12:46 PM IST
