www.red11.org DAILY NEWS
Date: Thu Sep 10 23:04:35 GMT+00:00 1998
Mail: barry@www.red11.org
This Issue:
1. Man United 4 v Charlton 1 FT Report
2. WE FIGHT TO THE END, VOW FANS
3. HOW THE MATCH WAS MADE
4. UNITED - FROM RAGS TO RICHES
5. UNITED AGREE £623m DEAL WITH BSKYB
6. Not always so rosy for billion dollar United
7. New York Times Article.
++++++=========+++++++========+++++++++========++++++++
FANS NOT BETRAYED, INSISTS UNITED CHAIRMAN
Martin Edwards has denied Manchester United have betrayed the fans over BSkyB`s £623.4million
takeover. United chairman Edwards is also joining the BSkyB board after concluding the deal which is reportedly set to bring him £85m.
Speaking at a press conference to confirm the acceptance of the deal, Edwards said: "I believe what we have done will strengthen Manchester United, not weaken us."
This digest is available Daily at:
http://www.red11.org/mufc/news/digest.htm
Daily RED Trivia Thursday 10th September 98:
1892: Andrew Mitchell made his debut against Burnley. A determined Full-back,
Mitchell made 61 appearances between 1892-94, leaving for Burton Swifts when
Newton Heath were relegated in 1894.
1983: United beat Luton Town 2-0 at Old Trafford with goals from Arnold Muhren
and Arthur Albiston. The Division 1 game was watched by 41,013. Team was:
Bailey, Gidman, Albiston, Wilkins, Moran, McQueen, Robson (Moses), Muhren,
Stapleton, Whiteside, Graham.
********************************
Next 3 games:
Index: http://www.red11.org/mufc/fix9899z.htm
Sat 12/9 Coventry (H) PL
Wed 16/9 Barcelona (H) CL
Sat 20/9 Arsenal (A) PL
The video of the Eric Cantona Testimonial game has been
released and will be on sale from today (Wed)
in the Superstore and Megastore at OT. The price is 7.99
UNITED Stats v Barcelona are here:
http://www.red11.org/mufc/stats/vsbarcelona.htm Url
http://www.red11.org/mufc/stats/vsbarcelona.xls Excel File
++++++=========+++++++========+++++++++========++++++++
*** RESULTS AND ATTENDANCES ON 08/09/98 ***
Leeds United 3-0 Southampton 30,637
Nottingham Forest 0-2 Everton 25,610
*** RESULTS AND ATTENDANCES ON 09/09/98 ***
Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle United 39,241
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal 34,644
Derby County 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday 26,209
Leicester City 0-1 Middlesbrough 20,635
Liverpool 2-0 Coventry City 41,771
Manchester United 4-1 Charlton Athletic 55,147
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Blackburn Rovers 28,338
West Ham United 3-4 Wimbledon 25,311
*** FULL LEAGUE TABLE AS AT 09/09/98 ***
Pos Team P W D L F A W D L F A GD Pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Liverpool 4 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 0 6 2 6 10
2 Aston Villa 4 2 0 0 4 1 1 1 0 1 0 4 10
3 Leeds United 4 2 0 0 4 0 0 2 0 1 1 4 8
4 Wimbledon 4 1 1 0 4 2 1 1 0 4 3 3 8
5 Arsenal 4 1 1 0 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 6
6 Derby County 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 1 6
7 Nottingham Forest 4 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 1 3 3 -1 6
8 Tottenham Hotspur 4 1 0 1 2 4 1 0 1 2 3 -3 6
9 Manchester United 3 1 1 0 6 3 0 1 0 0 0 3 5
10 Charlton Athletic 4 1 0 0 5 0 0 2 1 1 4 2 5
11 West Ham United 4 0 1 1 3 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 5
12 Middlesbrough 4 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 2 3 -1 5
13 Leicester City 4 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 1 2 3 0 4
14 Blackburn Rovers 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 3 -1 4
15 Everton 4 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 2 2 -1 4
16 Coventry City 4 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 3 -2 4
17 Sheffield Wednesday 4 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 1 3 1 0 3
18 Chelsea 3 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 2
19 Newcastle United 4 0 1 1 1 4 0 1 1 1 2 -4 2
20 Southampton 4 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 2 0 8 -10 0
"The Deal is done!"
Subject: Man United 4 v Charlton 1 FT Report
Man United (2) 4 Charlton (1) 1 FT
Solskjaer 38,63 Kinsella 32
Yorke 45,48
The day may have belonged to BSkyB and their £623.4million
takeover of Manchester United, but the night was Dwight Yorke's.
Much was expected of United's £12.6million record signing on his
home debut and he did not disappoint as he produced a sparkling performance.
He scored twice, including his 100th career goal, and was at the
heart of nearly everything for United.
Yorke was duly conferred with hero status by the United fans and
he came off midway through the second half to a standing ovation
from the home supporters.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ably supported Yorke on his first start of
the season as the Norwegian also bagged a brace.
The Old Trafford faithful were delighted by United's first league
win of the season and they directed just the odd chant of abuse at
chairman Martin Edwards over the takeover.
The Independent Manchester United Supporters Association, though,
has vowed to fight the takeover and has organised a rally for next Tuesday.
That is of little concern to Charlton, who after making a bright
start to life in the Premiership, were brought down to earth with a hefty bump.
They had not conceded a goal in their first three matches as boss
Alan Curbishley won the August Manager of the Month award, but
Yorke and Solskjaer combined to make a substantial dent in
their goals against column.
The Addicks arrived at Old Trafford full of confidence and they
gave United a scare after nine minutes when Andy Hunt got a touch
to Neil Redfearn's shot, but he directed his effort past the post
with Peter Schmeichel beaten.
Paul Scholes then wasted a glorious opportunity to give United
the lead after 11 minutes when Yorke played him through only for
the England midfielder to shoot wide.
United went close again when Yorke fed David Beckham on the right
and he sent over a teasing cross to the back post where Sasa Ilic
made a point-blank save from Solskjaer's header.
Hunt then had a strong penalty appeal turned down by referee Paul
Durkin when he went down in the box under a challenge from Jaap Stam.
The impressive Yorke was just inches away from scoring when he
slid in to knock Beckham's cross over the bar.
Charlton then stunned United when they took the lead after 31
minutes thanks to a huge slice of luck.
Captain Mark Kinsella's 25-yard shot took a deflection as it
passed through a pack of players, wrong-footing Schmeichel
before ending up in the back of the net.
Their lead was shortlived and seven minutes later Solskjaer
repaid manager Alex Ferguson for giving him his first start
when he equalised with a terrific finish from just outside area.
Scholes almost added a second with a 25-yard drive which Ilic
touched away brilliantly for a corner.
United were not to be denied and two minutes into stoppage time
Yorke paid off the first instalment
of his £12.6million transfer fee.
Beckham curled in a tempting free-kick from the right and Yorke
came in at the back post to head home his first goal for United.
Yorke picked up where he left off after the interval and the
second half was just three minutes old
when Yorke sidefooted home his second and United's third.
Scholes found Beckham on the right and Solskjaer missed his
cross, but the Trinidad and Tobago
international striker made no mistake to score from close range.
Chris Powell denied Yorke a hat-trick opportunity when he headed
debutant Jesper Blomqvist's cross away with the former Aston Villa man lurking.
Charlton replaced Shaun Newton with Paul Mortimer, while United
brought Henning Berg on for the injured Denis Irwin.
A male streaker then ran onto the pitch after 58 minutes to
provide an amusing interlude before he surrendered to the stewards.
By now Charlton had also hoisted the white flag and Solskjaer
stole in unmarked to head home his second of the night from Berg's
right-wing cross on 62 minutes.
From here on it was just a matter of how many United wanted to
score, but in the final quarter they eased up as Teddy Sheringham
came on for Yorke and Andy Cole for Solskjaer.
Man United: Schmeichel, Irwin (Berg, 57), Johnsen, Stam, Beckham,
Neville, Blomqvist, Keane,
Scholes, Yorke (Sheringham, 68), Solskjaer (Cole, 68).
Subs not used: Van Der Gouw, Wilson.
Charlton: Ilic, Mills, Powell, Redfearn, Youds, Newton (Mortimer,
55), Kinsella (K. Jones, 75),
Hunt, Mendonca (S. Jones, 71), Robinson, Brown.
Subs not used: Petterson, Balmer.
Attendance: 55,147.
Referee: P Durkin (Portland).
Subject: Not always so rosy for billion dollar United
By Mitch Phillips
LONDON, Sept 9 - Manchester United plc is revelling in its 625
million pounds ($1.02 billion) buy-out. But it has not always been so rosy for the Reds.
Even before Tuesday's BSkyB takeover, United were the richest soccer club in the
world and seen as an example to all on how to wring every available penny from a
brand name.
Delegations from Italy, Spain and Germany now visit Old Trafford to see how the
United Megastore is run and to learn how a million pounds a season is raised from
programme sales.
Chief executive Martin Edwards sits shoulder to shoulder with some of the most
important businessmen in the world and tells how his personal 80 million
pounds-plus profit is good for the club and good for the game.
And as the capacity of Old Trafford continues to grow, so does the waiting list for
season tickets.
It was all so different in the summer of 1991 when United followed Tottenham
Hotspur's lead and took the plunge into the stock market.
In what seem ludicrously small figures now, the club sought to raise just 10 million
pounds ($16.60 million), mainly to finance ground improvements.
And what's more, the float was a disastrous flop as private investors bought less
than half the available shares. There were fewer than 10,000 applications for the 1.2
million shares, leaving 54 percent with the underwriters.
The first day of trading, June 10 1991, saw an 18.5 percent drop in share price and
dire warnings about the financial future of the game.
An analyst speaking at the time said: "United will have to prove themselves to be a
solid prospect within the next year. The market will not give them a second
chance."
The fans decided the shares were too expensive, leaving the City institutions to take
command.
Some of those same fans, and their offspring, are planning a mass demonstration
against the BSkyB takeover, but there was little dissent when the first City money
came rolling in seven years ago.
And Edwards, who in 1991 urged investors to "hang on" promising there was "scope
for an upward move," could easily have been out of the picture by then.
Two years earlier in 1989 he agreed to sell control of the club to businessman
Michael Knighton, only for Knighton to fail to come up with the cash.
While Edwards now wonders what to do with his fortune, Knighton ammuses
himself with a dual role of chairman and team manager at Carlisle -- third from
bottom of England's third division.
The clubs are light years apart now, with United crowned champions of England four
times in the last six years and a fixture in the Champions' League.
But in 1991 they were just another first division club struggling in the shadow of
Liverpool.
A month before the float United had finished the season in sixth place - sandwiched
between cross-town rivals Manchester City and Wimbledon.
They had won the European Cup Winners' Cup but the continuing failure to win the
league championship - last lifted in 1967 - was an open sore at Old Trafford.
United spent millions - not always wisely - in a vain attempt to regain the title but
had to look on jealously as eight other sides took turns to beat them to it during
what turned out to be 26 barren championship years.
During that time they were relegated to the second division, were involved in off-field
scandals and became the scourge of Europe only in terms of their supporters,
whose reputation for violence in the 70s was second to none.
No-one wanted to touch them then and even their own fans turned their back in
1991.
They are complaining now but they had their chance seven years ago, deciding
instead to sell their soccer soul for a new roof on the Stretford End.
"The Deal is done!"
Subject: New York Times Article.
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON -- Fresh from acquisitive forays into U.S. sports, Rupert Murdoch is
aiming at the richest stratum of British soccer with a reported $950
million bid for the fabled Manchester United club that would tighten his
grip on televised sports in this country.
B Sky B PLC, Murdoch's British satellite broadcasting unit, confirmed in a
statement Monday that it was "in discussions which may or may not lead to
an offer being made for Manchester United." The team is the wealthiest
British soccer club, with profits last year approaching $45 million from
merchandising, gate receipts and broadcast fees.
The maneuver seemed to reflect acquisitions in the United States, where Fox
TV, controlled by Murdoch's News Corp., purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers
in March and has a stake in the New York Knicks, in addition to options on
stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings, an ice hockey
team.
News of the bid brought angry roars from some of Manchester United's
estimated 3 million fans and raised a possibility of government regulators
scrutinizing the deal.
None of that worried investors: Manchester United stock, listed since 1991,
leaped more than one-third in early trading on the London Stock Exchange,
adding some $240 million in value. At one point, the gains put the share
price just below B Sky B's reported offer of 225 pence a share; the shares
fell back to around 207 pence, a 30 percent gain on the day. Other leading
soccer teams listed on the stock exchange notched up gains of around 12
percent in anticipation of interest from other entertainment companies.
B Sky B's negotiation also set loose a likely bidding war with Enic PLC,
the British leisure group that already has a stake in several other
European soccer clubs and which has a joint venture with Time Warner in
restaurants and retail trade. Enic executives withheld comment on
widespread news reports that the company was planning a rival bid, hoping
to benefit from the unpopularity of Murdoch's move among supporters of the
team.
Murdoch once called televised sports the "battering ram" of pay TV. The
Evening Standard newspaper said, "In Manchester United, he could not have
chosen a bigger weapon." But the bid also raised hackles: Murdoch's B Sky B
already has a monopoly in broadcasting games played by British soccer's
mass-audience Premier League, in which Manchester United is a star
attraction among the 20 teams.
Ownership of the club could give him an edge in renegotiating exclusive
broadcast rights when the current four-year Premier League arrangement,
valued at some $1.1 billion, expires in 2001. "He wants to be around the
negotiating table with the Premier League clubs," said Vinay Bedi, a soccer
industry analyst with the brokerage firm Wise Speake in Newcastle in
northeastern England. It would also provide a hedge if British regulators
end the rules permitting exclusive broadcasting rights to the entire
Premier League.
B Sky B has a stake in Manchester United's own television station, MUTV,
putting it in a strong position if British sports television goes the way
of Spain and Italy, permitting individual clubs to control broadcast rights
to their games.
Not only that, Murdoch's control of Fox TV in the United States and his
Star TV in Asia offer the possibility of turning Manchester United into a
global attraction for paying viewers and advertisers alike, analysts said.
"It shouldn't be seen as a stand-alone event but as part of the broad
strategy, which is to become the dominant global force in the media and
entertainment sphere," Eric Betts, an analyst with Nomura Australia, told
Reuters.
Murdoch's bid to acquire Manchester United has inspired worries that his
control of British sports is becoming all but unassailable. Radio talk
shows in the north of England, where Manchester United has its core
following, were deluged with hostile calls. And Peter Mandelson, the trade
and industry secretary, said regulators would look at a bid by Murdoch for
Manchester United "very searchingly indeed."
Murdoch has been a prime force behind the transformation of British
televised sports into a lucrative industry. Apart from B Sky B's control of
the Premier League in soccer, the venture also has a lock on many major
rugby and cricket tournaments.
But Murdoch has trailed other European media concerns in moving into the
ownership of the clubs themselves. Enic, the leisure company thought to be
preparing a rival bid, owns soccer teams in Italy, Greece and the Czech
Republic and a one-quarter stake in the Glasgow Rangers team in Scotland.
One question that lingers unanswered is why Manchester United is offering
itself for sale. Both the advent of pay-per-view television sports and the
talk of a possible European super league were major attractions for B Sky
B, Bedi, the soccer analyst, said. "But," he added, "one wonders why
Manchester United would be interested in selling when these pots of gold
are waiting for them."
Manchester United - The Legend - http://manunited.net
"The Deal is done!"
Pic Link today is http://www.red11.org/mufc/history.htm
Barry
J. Leeming Digest Prgram
by 
William
McArthur Canada
