Manchester United fans cancel pre-Arsenal protest | OneFootball

The Manchester United supporters’ group The 1958 has cancelled a high-profile protest march planned for the opening day of the Premier League season, abandoning its intended demonstration against Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family ahead of the club’s home fixture against Arsenal.

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The protest, which had been scheduled for Saturday, 17 August, was set to begin several hours before kick-off at Old Trafford, with banners, chants and a walk to the stadium targeting the club’s ownership structure.

In recent years, The 1958 has become the most visible opposition movement against the Glazers, but its focus has broadened to include Ratcliffe, who acquired a 28.94% stake in the club in late 2023 and took over football operations in February.

Last week, a spokesman for the group had issued a damning statement, declaring: “Jim Ratcliffe chose to get into bed with the Glazers and, in our opinion, is helping keep them in charge. So on August 17, we protest not just against the Glazers, but now also against Jim Ratcliffe – a man once seen by many, including ourselves, as a possible saviour, a beacon of hope but now revealed as complicit in the ongoing erosion of everything that makes our club what it is.”

Another statement from the group had described Ratcliffe as “no saviour” and “like a (red) devil in disguise,” reflecting the collapse in goodwill that followed his failure to deliver a full buyout and the subsequent implementation of unpopular structural changes across the club.

The reasons for the cancellation have not been formally disclosed, but an unwillingness to distract from the on-pitch significance of the opening weekend may have played a role.

Banners reading Jim Can’t Fix This had already been prepared, and social media posts promoting the protest had been widely circulated. Some of the group’s previous demonstrations have attracted thousands, and the decision to pull the protest so close to matchday is being met with mixed reactions among supporters.

Ratcliffe, who has hinted in the past that he would consider stepping away if subject to the sort of vitriol long aimed at the Glazers, has made no public response to the most recent statements and remains a highly visible but increasingly divisive figure within United’s fanbase.

The opening match against Arsenal is expected to sell out, with tensions off the pitch now momentarily subdued – but by no means resolved.