Should the Glazer Family Give Up Control of Manchester United?

Currently the richest sports league on the planet, the English Premier League has been a league that has brought attention from every corner of the world by means of both players and investors since the league's inception in 1992.

Today, the Premier League and the 20 clubs that star in the league for 38 matches each season are a major attraction for hundreds of millions of fans around the world as they buy gear for clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool.

But also with this global attention, there have now been owners that have taken over these major sides and have saddled many of the Premier League clubs with debt.

Currently, the debt in the English Premier League is about 56 percent of the total debt in Europe with about £3.5 billion.

Along with that, the top four clubs in the Premier League take up about £2 billion of that debt.

On Feb. 26, Portsmouth became the first ever Premier League side to go into administration, which cost Pompey nine points in a season that, if they are lucky to survive until the end of the season, will place them in the Championship.

The reason why Portsmouth went into administration was due to terrible ownership and the failure to repay their accumulating debt of approximately £70 million, which could cause the club to soon cease to exist.

But despite Portsmouth's terrible financial situation, there are still clubs where the fans want the ownership out to help their club get over their debt.

Overall, the one club that has really signified this in the last several months has been Manchester United with their American owners (the Glazer family) in charge of the club.

Since Malcolm Glazer took over the Red Devils back in 2005, Man United have accumulated a debt of £716.5 million (over 1 billion US dollars) and have major fan opposition since they took over the club.

This fan opposition has ranged from the creation of FC United of Manchester to the Love United Hate Glazer Stickers and now the Green and Gold protest (in honor of Newton Heath, what Manchester United were known as after they were created in 1878).

Despite being hated by the United fans, the Glazer family has been reluctant to give up control of Manchester United, despite various offers from around the globe (some of which were as high as £1.5 billion), as they consider Manchester United to be too valuable to be sold.

The reason why the Glazers will not sell the team is that they believe that England could learn from American "know-how," which would cause United to earn more money and be a success for many years to come.

They also will refuse to sell United due to how much they like the club and will not sell United for any amount of money.

But now, should the Glazer family sell Manchester United?

Yes, the Red Devils have had great success since the Glazers took over in 2005, winning the Premier League three times and the Carling Cup three times each, and both the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2008.

And yes, Man United have become more of a global brand and have expanded Old Trafford since the Glazer takeover, causing the American ownership to gain even more money.

But, of course, there is that debt, which could cripple Man United in the long run if it continues to accumulate or if the Glazers cannot get enough money to get them out of the red.

Now due to the debt, it has become obvious that Man United do not have the funds to buy major international players even though David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson insist the funds are there, but they don't want to use them on anybody in the market due to overvalue of players.

Despite the success on the pitch, most Manchester United fans want the Glazer family out due to the debt in order to protect the safety of the Red Devils for the future.

So what do you, the reader, think? Do you think that the Glazer family should give up control of Manchester United?