Eat the Rich

Quite a bit to get through this morning, most of it financial, and we can certainly expect to read a lot more on this in the coming days, given the late hour of the announcement of the launch of the IPO leaves most papers with just the PA story.

Here that is, from The Guardian:

An announcement was made on Monday night and confirms an intention to raise around $300m (£190m), with shares set to start between $16 and $20.

However, there does appear to have been a significant shift in how the proceeds will be used. Previously it was suggested that the entire sum would be used to pay off United's massive debt, which currently stands at more than £400m.

However, the prospectus that has been released to accompany the announcement indicates only half the money will be used in that way, with the rest going directly to the family.

And here's Reuters with a little more detail. 

The IPO may be a tough sell in the United States given the lack of U.S. publicly traded sports teams to compare Manchester United against and given that many Americans don't regard football as a top sport.

The company's latest financials may also give investors pause. Revenue for the fiscal year 2012 is expected to 315 million pounds to 320 million pounds ($495 million to $503 million), down 3 to 5 percent from the previous year, the company said in its S-1.

The Mirror lead the PA story with the headline "Glazers risk fan fury":

However, the prospectus that has been released to accompany tonight's announcement indicates only half the money will be used in that way, with the rest going directly to the family.

If that proves to be the case it will provoke fury among the United support, who have already seen vast amounts of cash disappear in various charges following the Glazer family takeover in 2005.

Also yesterday we signed a deal for a new shirt sponsor, bringing in lots of cash, The Guardian have nice quotes from the corporate side, which we'll ignore, while The Sun goes for the more sensational: 

MANCHESTER UNITED have signed a world-record shirt sponsorship deal worth £210million.

The seven-year contract with US Car firm General Motors will see Chevrolet on United’s shirts from the start of the 2014-15 season.

It is worth an incredible £10m a year more than their current deal with AON.

...

The £30m-a-year deal eclipses the current highest shirt sponsorship contract of Barcelona’s with The Qatar Foundation, which is worth £25m a year.

In other news, Rio Ferdinand is charged over his "choc ice" (re)tweet.  The FA charge is written to cover so much that he's almost certainly going to be found guilty. The charge quoted from The Telegraph:

The allegation is that the player acted in a way which was improper and/or bought the game into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race.

The Mirror and The Sun disagree on how Rio is taking the news.  The Mirror report:

Rio Ferdinand is kicking himself over the tweet that has landed him with an FA charge.

The Manchester United captain is frustrated that he let his guard down when he forwarded a Twitter message he'd received that called Ashley Cole “a choc ice”, repeating the term in the process.

While The Sun says:

A source said: “It is fair to say Rio is dumbfounded by this.

“He saw the tweet as a simple response to one of his followers rather than anything malicious and fears the FA is out of touch with modern-day social networking.”

The Daily Star go with "stunned and furious."

Finally, The Daily Mail do a classic manoeuvre:  when a transfer rumour proves baseless, say the club's backtracked rather than admit they were wrong.  Berba isn't going to Galatasary apparently, after they "withdraw" their offer:

A club statement from the Turkish giants read: 'There have been some reports in the media that Dimitar Berbatov will be transferred to our club.

'The club would like to declare that there is no transfer and no attempt has been made in that regard.'