February 27th, 2023, YouGov
The Glazer family announced in November that Manchester United was up for sale. A new YouGov poll of 1,000 of the club’s fans suggests that if they do leave, they won’t necessarily be missed.
Three-quarters (77%) say the club has gotten worse since they purchased it in 2005, with just 5% saying the club has gotten better – arguably some feat, given that the club has won 13 trophies in the 18 years following the takeover.
Looking towards the future, there’s a clear favourite for the new United owner among the options we provided. Some two in five (40%) think Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS are ideally placed to take over the club, with all other candidates falling far behind.
Going a bit deeper, if you ask United fans if they support or oppose a Ratcliffe takeover, seven in ten (71%) are on board with the idea – with one in ten (9%) not in favour, and two in ten saying they don’t know (21%).
The idea of an Elon Musk takeover (with news of a bid mooted by various media outlets but not officially confirmed) has been largely rejected. Two-thirds oppose an Elon Musk takeover (65%), with just a quarter (25%) supporting it.
That said, United fans are torn on whether or not the mercurial Tesla, Twitter, Boring Company, and SpaceX executive would be an improvement on the Glazers, or a downgrade. While two in five (40%) think he would be better, nearly as many (36%) think he would be worse – while a quarter say they don’t know either way.
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Methodology: YouGov polled 1,000 British Manchester United fans online on 15-16 February. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, region, and social grade. The margin of error is 2% for the overall sample. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Self-serve.