MIPIM | Neville calls for United’s next owner to ‘do what Man City did’ 

While the Glazer family assesses bids for Manchester United FC, the club’s former captain has laid down a challenge to whoever takes over: regenerate the area around Old Trafford stadium. 

Speaking at MIPIM, Gary Neville praised the work of Manchester City FC’s owners in redeveloping large areas of East Manchester and said he expected Manchester United’s new owner to take a similar approach. 

“They invested in an area that needed it,” he said. “It was an area nobody ever really went before and that takes real courage,” he said. 

“If you said to any developer in Manchester in 2007, invest a billion pounds in this area over the next 10 years, they wouldn’t be putting their hand up.” 

Since taking over the club, Manchester City’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group, has developed a new training ground for the club as well as a significant amount of housing in East Manchester through Manchester Life joint venture with the city council. 

The Co-op Live arena is currently under construction, while plans were recently unveiled to expand the Etihad Stadium and develop a fan park. 

At Manchester United, the story is very different, according to Neville. 

“If I stand on the top of my hotel [Hotel Football located next to Old Trafford], and look towards MediaCity, it is amazing. If I look over to Manchester it is amazing.  

“If I look around to the area [the Glazers own] it is terrible.” 

In regeneration and real estate terms, United has “stagnated”, Neville said. It is not just about the stadium, he also criticised the Glazers’ lack of vision and apparent unwillingness to capitalise on opportunities for development around Old Trafford. 

“The car parks are seen as some sort of monument. They value these 6,000 spaces rather than just building a few multi-storeys and regenerating the area,” he said. 

“We need someone to buy the club and do basically what Manchester City have done.” 

To replicate what Manchester City did in East Manchester around Old Trafford would require a great deal of capital. Perhaps the kind of capital only a nation-state could provide. 

A bid is on the table from a group of Qatari investors headed by former Prime Minister Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani. 

Question marks over Qatar’s human rights record lingered over the recent World Cup and, while Neville has a strict list of criteria he would like any new owner to meet, he is not closed to the idea of state-backed involvement. 

His criteria includes an owner that would eschew dividends, not saddle the club with debt, and invest in the ground and surrounding area. 

“All those things are really important to me,” he told Place North West. “Whoever buys it has got to win on the pitch and win off the pitch. 

“Whether that be [rival bidder, Ineos’s] Jim Ratcliffe, who’s a local businessman, or whether it be Qatar, or the American investment group, Elliott, football has become an engine in this country for global investment and we’ve got to get our heads around that.”