Ed Woodward resigns as chairman of Manchester United following the huge amounts of backlash over the European Super League.
He had already agreed with the Glazers, United’s owners, that he would finish at Old Trafford at the end of the year, but the announcement has been brought forward.
Woodward’s resignation comes after his club were heavily criticised by their own supporters for agreeing to join a breakaway European Super League.
United’s rivals Manchester City withdrew from the ESL on Tuesday and Chelsea are also planning to do so. See more on that HERE.
The derided chief has had quite the chequered history during his time at the helm of the Red Devils and his role in the shameless money grab has led to his undoing.
He kept the club financially viable but struggled to deliver the success enjoyed during the halcyon days of Sir Alex Fergsuon as Premier League rivals Manchester City have emerged under his watch.
It’s reported that Harry Maguire ‘confronted’ the Man Utd executive vice-chairman over the proposals.
United players were left ‘seriously unimpressed’ after Woodward held ‘an emergency briefing’ on Monday with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad.
It is understood that Woodward ‘delivered a briefing via Zoom to explain the club’s position at their training base’ with ‘the reception among many of the squad’ said to be ‘lukewarm at best’.
The source told the Daily Mail: ‘Some of the players were seriously unimpressed. Not only that they were left to find out by the media about what had happened but that their manager was left to face the press when the owners had concocted this.
‘Woodward attempted to appease them but the response was lukewarm at best. It hasn’t gone down well with many of them.’
CLUB STATEMENT:
Ed Woodward said: “I am extremely proud to have served United and it has been an honour to work for the world’s greatest football club for the past 16 years.
“The club is well positioned for the future and it will be difficult to walk away at the end of the year.
“I will treasure the memories from my time at Old Trafford, during a period when we won the Europa League, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup. I am proud of the regeneration of the club’s culture and our return to the Manchester United way of playing.
“We have invested more than £1bn in the squad during my time here and I am particularly delighted with the progress the players have made under the astute leadership of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his coaching team in the last two years.
“I am sure that with the changes we have made on-field and to the coaching and football staff in recent years this great club will soon be lifting silverware again. It deserves to.
“I desperately wanted the club to win the Premier League during my tenure and I am certain the foundations are in place for us to win it back for our passionate fans.
“Our world-famous academy is flourishing again, with 34 players progressing into the first team since 2013, and it has been a pleasure to watch talents such as Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Axel Tuanzebe flourish in the first team environment. In the years to come the club’s production line of young talent will continue to push established first team players for their places. That competition bodes well for the future.
“We have also established Manchester United women and their progress is further evidence of the demand for success at this great club.
“The last 16 months have brought so many unique challenges and the club’s work in the community and around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic has been heroic.
“The financial impact on football clubs has been severe, but United have been one of the most robust and resilient in the face of extraordinary financial pressures.
“I would like to thank United’s passionate fans for their support during the good and bad times. I know this has been a challenging period in our history, but your support for the team has never, ever been in doubt.
“Finally, it has been a pleasure to work with so many magnificent, talented and hard-working people.”
Co-chairman Joel Glazer added: “Ed Woodward has served the club with great distinction. On behalf of everyone at United I would like to place on record our sincere thanks for his tireless work and dedication.
“His contribution to the club has been massive, and he will always be welcome at Old Trafford as a part of the Manchester United family.”
– STATEMENT ENDS –
Keegan added more details in a tweet on Tuesday morning, he wrote: “Bit more info on this from yesterday. I understand that Harry Maguire confronted Ed Woodward at the meeting over the players (who went out and played on Sky as the news broke) not knowing about the plans. Fair play to the United captain.”
In January 2020, a group of furious Manchester United fans throw flares at Ed Woodward’s house as their protests against chief executive turns nasty.
20 supporters in balaclava – some of whom are believed to be members of the Premier League side’s notorious “Men In Black” hooligan firm – targeted the £2million mansion at 8pm.
The gang came together outside the home of Woodward and rang an intercom on large gates at the entrance to the property.
Allegedly no-one answered, so the group decided to spray red paint over it and also launch smoke bombs as well as flares and fireworks.
It is understood the 48-year-old, who is married with two young children, was not present at the time.
A source told The Sun: “Woodward has been a disaster as chief executive and needs to leave the club.
“Lots of people have said it but he doesn’t seem to listen – perhaps because he’s getting paid £4m-a-year.
“So we decided to pay him a visit to tell him to his face. We didn’t get to speak to him but hopefully he’ll get the message because we’re not going away and we won’t stand around doing nothing while our club is ruined.”
fans allegedly firing Flares at Ed Woodward’s House, Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/IvCt8edsDk
— Clintmeks (@meksclint) January 28, 2020
Legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson was among those to voice his opposition to the decision.
“Talk of a Super League is a move away from 70 years of European club football,” he told Reuters.
“Both as a player for a provincial team Dunfermline in the 60s and as a manager at Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, for a small provincial club in Scotland it was like climbing Mount Everest.”
Fans reacted after seeing that Ed Woodward resigns as chairman of Manchester United…
@tomas_oneill5: I hope his charger only works at a certain angle
@Vintage_Utd: OH MY DAYS
@AnfieldRd96: ESL announced out of nowhere. Mourinho sacked. Ed Woodward resigned. ESL cancelled. What a couple of days we’ve had.
@Thogden: Oh my god football is actually saved
@DocJ_MUFC: He will not always be welcome at United. Glad he’s gone. Glazers next. Scum.
@kendallrowanx: DO NOT GO BACK AND FEED INTO YOUR CLUB NOW. THEY DIDNT CARE ABOUT YOU WHEN THEY SIGNED THIS DEAL AND THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOU NOW. NEVER FORGET. #SuperLeagueOut
@mxutdd: BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR FOOTBALL
@BesanGreenwood: Club statement on the Glazers soon or we riot again
@invertedLWB: YES WE’RE FREE. NOW GET THE GLAZER SCUM OUT
@PeterAS00: I’m crying. I’m genuinely crying. If the Glazers go too, this will the happiest time of my life. WE ARE GETTING OUR CLUB BACK #GlazersOut
@utdrobbo: I’m honestly speechless. The joy has taken over.
@UTDRayyank: YESSSSSS ICE IN THE FUCKING VEINS
@AnthonyTWilson: Whatever happens we cannot let the Glazers & Ed Woodward slip off the hook again, they go – end of.
@TheSaItIsHere: REST IN PISS BOZO HAHAHAHA #GlazersOut
@SAlMUFC: Hoping everything just leads to Glazers and all the owners leaving their clubs and normality resumes
@Estella94723396: #PlayersStandUp
@Buntingfootball: Ed Woodward resigning as Manchester United chairman, this shows that the fans power really does matter. What a moment for those Manchester United fans who have wanted this moment to happen for years. This is absolutely crazy and it shows that football wins #MUFC
@_NickNewell_: Now that Woodward has gone we need to find £4.2billion to buy our club back. Who’s in? Check behind you sofa’s everyone #MUFC
@DevilsNeverDie_: I actually have tears in my eyes right now. ED WOODWARD IS FUCKING GONE. I’ve waited so long for this day, could this actually be the beginning of the end for those disgusting rat-faced bastards??? From the jaws of defeat… VICTORY IS ON THE HORIZON MY FRIENDS
@jamesswift: It’s all going off tonight!
@Tim_JC: Should never be allowed near a football club again.
@notoSL: 51% ownership rule. Get it done and this will never happen again.
@UtdApollo: We need to keep pushing them
@davenolan2312: 1 gone #GlazersOut next
@petermufcx: Quality! Bout time the weird looking goblin fucked off #mufc
@DotDotDot_John: The Glazers need to follow!
@LukeClegg5: This super league has low-key been one of the best things to ever happen to this club
@Utd_DeviI: Oml the super league could be the greatest thing to touch this club since SAF. Manchester United may be back…
@utd_hub10: Now we drive the Glazers out of the club! We keep going! #GlazersOut
@MusicmanUK1: My day is complete!! Perhaps the Galzers will follow tomorrow!! Give us back our club!!
@kush________: Lets goo OMDSSS
Phil Jones outlasted Woodward. pic.twitter.com/vqzWXh1K5T
— Alternative MUFC Commentary. (@AlternativeMUFC) April 20, 2021
I’m bout to collapse next
— ManUtdMindset (@ManUtdMindset) April 20, 2021
♥️ https://t.co/rSGbpi7SJD pic.twitter.com/vJbEK40nbs
— The Redmen TV (@TheRedmenTV) April 20, 2021
— JR 🇨🇴 (@hamezCF) April 20, 2021
Our club ❤️ pic.twitter.com/dNosR1URmA
— Liam (@_CFCLiam) April 20, 2021
“So I just marched into his office and told him straight, I’m the captain of Manchester United and I’m relieving you of your duties” pic.twitter.com/qc7nt4ctVy
— bruno NOT fernandes (@whel_oooo) April 20, 2021
— Aidan Walsh 🔰 (@AidanWalshMUFC) April 20, 2021
It comes after Gary Neville gave his thought on the European Super League when asked on Monday Night Football.
“I’m enthused by the reaction of the Government, by royalty, by the whole of football, by the fans, but if they get this through, if they push this through and these owners have pushed difficult things through for their clubs in the past. Levy is steel-like, the Glazers are steel-like, Abramovich is hard as nails, he won’t care about criticism.
“It will change football in this country forever, forever, and we have to now mobilise, organise, it’s difficult not to get emotional and feel sick. But you have to write to your MPs, you’ve got to write to your local football clubs, everybody’s got to come behind this.
“Pundits for BBC, ITV, BT Sport, forget allegiances, forget who you support, we’ve got to come together to stop this proposal. This is an attack on everything that’s been important in this country, football has helped in the last 10 months in the midst of pandemic, more than ever, to keep people going, and they’re trying to take it away from us.
“I feel slightly complicit, I stayed pretty quiet in terms of the Glazer family over the years, I stayed quiet because when the club were taken over as a PLC, that you know it could be bought and it was out of the control of everybody, a completely different market, generally in life and I always thought: ‘What’s the answer to the Glazers? Who takes them out, Russia, China, state money, for the two or three billion quid it would need?’. I’ve stayed quiet on the basis that it’s still Man United, I can still watch the lads play, I can be happy and I can be sad, I’m still watching football in this country.
“If they take dividends out, alright, it’s dividends, I can live with it slightly. What I can’t live with is attacking every single football fan in this country, they have stepped over the mark, they are scavengers and they need booting out of this football club and booting out of this country. We have got to come together now, it might be too late. There will be people at Man United, fans that were arguing 15 years ago that will say it’s too late, but it’s never too late. We have got to stop this. It is absolutely critical we do.
“They’ve created a monopoly, a closed shop, a tournament where you’re guaranteed to be in it. West Ham and Leicester are in a Champions League place, forget it, they don’t get into the Champions League anymore, it doesn’t matter where they finish in the league. What’s the point? They’ll take away everything from this country: the pyramid, the sincerity of competition, the honesty and integrity of competition that we value and they’re taking it away.
“Yeah, we know that Manchester United have more money, we know that Liverpool have more money, we know that Arsenal have more money, we can live with that. There will always be top clubs that have more money, but they can be beaten by Sheffield United at home, they can draw with Fulham – and they’re trying to take that away to create franchise football.
“Never, it can never happen, I don’t think these six owners, I hope they’re panting hard tonight, feeling uncomfortable and their stomachs are churning and the executives and players who play for these clubs – I can’t sit here and say to the players of Liverpool and United to go on strike because that wouldn’t be right, but lads, if you’ve got it in you, you can stop this, you can mobilise it.
🍷
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 20, 2021
“Jurgen Klopp can stop it, he’s a man of integrity, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can stop it, he’s a man of integrity, they can all contribute to stopping it and we must all come together to stop it now because this is an attack by six national families on the integrity of our national sport and it must be stopped.
“When I mentioned You’ll Never Walk Alone, it wasn’t any disrespect to Liverpool. Maybe in the past I’ve done that, but not last night. My intentions last night were around the fact that the two most successful football clubs in this country should have high standards of integrity.
“For all the rivalry, there is a respect, a respect that you do the right things, a respect that you defend your club, of course, but I recognise that they’re both great football clubs that have both done great things. The shock that these two are at the front of this, forget the six, Chelsea and City, Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, we don’t even know who they are. Arsenal and Tottenham, I’d rather watch the champions of San Marino than those two at the moment, to be honest with you, how those two have wrangled their way in, they’re a joke to watch.
“And then we’ve got these two, they should be bringing people together, they should be demonstrating compassion, we’re in the midst of a pandemic, they should have the highest standards of all-time and these two sets of owners have taken these football clubs, not only profited from them, they have now taken it to a different level.
“Manchester United fans have argued that they’ve harmed our own club because they haven’t been able to put all that dividends and all those debt repayments into players but they’re no trying to harm every single football fan in this country because there is less money for grassroot pitches, there is less money for coaches.
“If these six leave, there is less money for everyone who plays in this country and the Government must step in now on these clubs. Liverpool and Man United, there was no point scoring for me last night mentioning Liverpool and if I came across that way to Jurgen Klopp, I apologise, because I think I’m on his side for this particular one.
“He’s done the most incredible job. If I take allegiances away, I’ve absolutely loved watching his football team over the last four years, more than the City one because they’re electric, they’re everything I want in a football team, he’s everything I want in a manager. He’s decent, his players are decent, I know some of them and the fans behind the goal are connected to the players and the manager. What’s happening is they’ve been basically divided.
“I think there’s a lack of willingness. They want to change the system, they want to chase the very fabric of the pyramid – relegation and promotion – so they have certainty and rely on their income year-in, year-out.
“Manchester United, they lose loads of money from their sponsors when they don’t qualify for the Champions League and they’ve been really good at not qualifying for the Champions League over the last 10 years, but they were banking on it all the time under Sir Alex Ferguson. There weren’t massive amounts of money being invested and still getting into the Champions League every season and they just thought it was their right, they’re entitled, they think they’re entitled to be in there – but they’re not and they’ve had the shock of their lives.
“Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United, Chelsea have fallen out of it, Liverpool, to be fair, (haven’t) under Jurgen Klopp. They want to change the system for their own benefit, more people watch those clubs, they want to own subscription, they want subscription models, they want to put it on their phone.
“You think about it: 150 million Man United fans worldwide paying £1 for every match every weekend, they get 150 million quid per week. They want to own their own commercial income, their own image rights, their own TV rights, they want to break away from what would be the system happening in this country.
“I think there’s no doubt over the last few years that Klopp’s team have become a very popular team. They’re unpopular tonight, everyone in this country wants Leeds United to win this game and I don’t like either, so I’m not talking about a club that I like – they were the two biggest rivals for Man United in my time.
“But everybody in this country wants Leeds United to win this game tonight and Jurgen Klopp, over the last few years, has worked so hard to build a spirit to become a team that could become revered around Europe and this country. Tonight, they’re up against it because of the actions of their owners. It will be a massive distraction to the players, they’ll know, they’ll feel it, and the Leeds players, it maybe an inspiration.
“You think about the Man United vs Liverpool game in a few weeks and if it wasn’t for Covid, you’d mobilise a march, you’d bring all the fans together and you’d march on that stadium, you do things here, you would, you have to act here.
“The idea that something happens would be to cancel the game on Sunday – City vs Spurs – who cares about it? They don’t care about it. They don’t care about English football, why should they play in the EFL Trophy? Things like that for me in this moment in time have to be on the table because they have to know that they can’t bully their way through everyone in this country and they are bullying the 14 clubs, the EFL, the FA and it is the six owners.”
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