Man Utd Muslim Supporters’ Club set document straight with Sir Jim Ratcliffe message

In the most recent instalment of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s plummeting standing amongst Manchester United supporters, the club’s official Muslim fans’ group issued a statement declaring they had lost faith in both the Ineos chief and the Glazer family.

The comprehensive statement detailed the organisation’s frustration with the “years of decline” presided over by United’s ownership, highlighting ticket costs, Old Trafford’s crumbling state and reckless expenditure as justification for their stance.

Nevertheless, one section within the statement has resulted in the group’s message being misinterpreted. At the weekend, Ratcliffe spoke to the BBC, during which he argued that no politician possessed the resolve to tackle two issues plaguing the UK – immigration and benefits.

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This followed Ratcliffe’s February apology for previously stating that Britain had been “colonised by immigrants”. “We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not,” the Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club (MUMSC) wrote.

“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either. We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.”

Since then, MUMSC’s chairman Asif Mahmud has told Daily Star Sport’s sister paper, the Manchester Evening News, the intention behind their statement has been overlooked, emphasising it extends far beyond Ratcliffe’s political opinions.

“This has been bubbling for quite some time. It’s not something that’s a knee jerk reaction. We’ve had frustrations at the ownership model for a long, long time.

“We were very much, genuinely, excited about Jim coming in because he was a Manchester lad, seemed to actually support and care about the club.

“But since they’ve [Ineos] arrived, it’s just a vicious cycle of hiring and firing, managers not getting backed fully, staff at the club being unhappy, it’s just the overall atmosphere and the feeling around the club, it’s just not good. And that’s been reflected on the pitch.”

Mahmud revealed that matters reached boiling point in two stages. The first came at the close of the summer transfer window when he and MUMSC believed Michael Carrick had been left wanting in terms of fresh signings. Then, following the derby day loss to Manchester City, Mahmud decided the moment had arrived to speak out.

“It was actually that evening that I reached out to some of our committee members and said: ‘Look, I feel we should put out a statement about not being happy with the way the club’s being run and how things are going,'” he said.

“I reached out to a friend who runs another supporters’ club, an official one, and said to them: ‘Look, I think something needs to be done’, and I threw some suggestions, and one of them was that collectively, all supporters’ clubs put out a statement of no confidence.

“Now, I know it’s just words, and words don’t seem to bother the ownership, but I just felt doing something together would be quite powerful. I also reached out to another fan group and I waited all weekend. There was no interest or anything coming back.

“On that Monday [September 14], a statement was drafted, and it was sent to the two groups that I mentioned. I said: ‘Look, I explicitly stated that it was an idea, it doesn’t have to be our idea. You don’t have to give us any credit.

“We just feel that something needs to be done. If this is a good idea, then speak to the others and see if they’re interested in doing it’. It wasn’t about speak to the others and see if they want to get in with us and they’ll do it on the back of us. It was, if the other supporters’ club groups think it’s a good idea, let’s just do it.

“Unfortunately, nothing came back and then on Saturday [September 19], Sir Jim comments about immigration and just the overall ill feeling, again, [that] he brought up comments he’d made previously. We just felt, enough is enough. We need to do something.”

Mahmud revealed the reaction to the statement has been varied. This has included abusive correspondence telling MUMSC members they should ‘leave the country’.

Yet the concern for Mahmud and his organisation is that the central message has now been distorted. “I just feel like a lot of what we’ve said has been lost. All the focus has all been about his comments on immigration, but we can put that to one side.

“You don’t have to like us, you don’t have to like our religion, you don’t have to like anything about us, but one thing we all have in common is that we hate and we dislike what we’re seeing at Manchester United. Surely we can get behind each other and we can rally and have one voice about what’s going on.

“We were prepared to put out the statement even before Sir Jim said what he said, risking our official status as a supporters’ club. People have said: ‘Why is there a Muslim supporters’ club?’ And: ‘Why do you need to do this? Do you need to do that?’ Well, to be honest, we were willing to forego even being an official supporters’ club for Man United because we knew that putting out a statement came with risk.”

Mahmud revealed that United have contacted him following the statement’s release to check all was well. Manchester Evening News reports there are no intentions to remove MUMSC’s official status after their no-confidence declaration.

Looking ahead, Mahmud maintains that United supporters must come together to voice their concerns about the ownership. “I’ve got a season ticket. I have been going to Old Trafford for over 12 years, supporting the club through everything, up and down, since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left,” he concluded, “and I see it and I hear it.

“I hear people at the ground complaining about the ownership. I was at the game against Fulham. People in the crowd, I could hear them complaining about the ownership.

“Now, if they can’t say it out loud because they don’t have the platform, then the supporters’ clubs need to speak on behalf of the fans, because it’s not just us. Yes, we’re talking about our statement right now because we published it, but we know that others feel the same way and they need to make their voice heard.”