A new stadium that Manchester United should have rebuild it by now, if Glazers were not the owners, now needs the taxpayers money!
Manchester United is preparing to launch the big plan of Sir Jim Ratcliffe by creating the “Wembley of the North” as the ailing Old Trafford needs an overhaul. But there is a catch for the tax payer: under bold plans for the spectacular new Old Trafford INEOS could seek to lobby government for funds amid “Levelling Up” pledges given potential scale/nature of the project!
By CHRISTOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS
Somebody wrote a tweet and to be honest it was spot on… it read “Monaco based tax exile trying to buy 25% of MUFC via Isle of Man based shell company investing in Cayman Islands based company listed in New York which has paid £941m to banks in interest for an LBO & £166m of dividends to Florida residents… wants UK taxpayer cash” and it caused a fury but how far from the reality it was?
On the other side people say that a big plan is a good option for the club and the government, a guarantee investment that will bring new jobs and more tax revenues in not to mention it will be the poster child for the "level up" programme success! In time of big trouble for the government and in general for the UK desperate measures are needed and a big project for the north is a boost!
Once construction jobs are finished, though, there is big question mark over the project that someone needs to answer to the taxpayer: how many more jobs will a bigger stadium generate? A lot. Certainly some but maybe not enough to move the needle on local unemployment in a meaningful way. It would be gesture politics, but gesture politics with a narrow appeal. And giving billionaires taxpayer money on the basis of levelling-up may not be the vote-winner you expect when children are starving, no dentists, foodbank usage through the roof and after Brexit Britain is heading directly to the rocks. To not forget whilst said, the millionaire new co owner of Manchester United pays absolutely no tax in his country as he is a tax exile in Monaco!
It is really annoying to all the fans of other clubs why the Worlds richest club for many years needs taxpayers money to rebuild its dilapidated stadium. It is because its current owners since 2005 have neglected it since they bought it. They only take money out all this years while the club has paid them dividends and enormous interest of nearly one billion pounds to the banks! It is absurd! And it will make other projects of the north as the new Everton stadium or the reconstruction of Saint James’s park up at Newcastle equally demanding for the taxpayers money! It is a can of worms that when it’s open then you cannot close it back!
