The answer to United's and Liverpool's debts? Flog their fans!

By David Anderson

Published 11:24 13/01/10

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I believe I have the answer to Manchester United and Liverpool's huge debt problems.

Between them, United and Liverpool have millions of fans around the world so why not sell a few thousand off?

Clubs have sold their players, their grounds and even their training grounds, so why not their supporters?

Like the Antarctic, fans are the last great untapped resource yet to be exploited and they could be worth a fortune.

Look at the North West... Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan and even Manchester City could do with some more fans to fill their grounds.

United and Liverpool could flog them a few - or in Wigan's case more than just a few - and everyone would be a winner.

Of course, there would be a sliding scale for the quality of fan and young, singing supporters would be at a premium.

Older supporters, who just sit there complaining and drinking their flask of Bovril, would be at the lower end of the market.

Full re-training would be offered with regard to which teams to hate and the words to any terrace songs.

The possibilities are endless and for Liverpool it would offer the board the opportunity of offloading that troublesome lot, the Spirit of Shankly.

Needless to say, the Spirit of Shankly group would have to promise not to send any emails to the directors of their club or clubs.

United and Liverpool could even roll the scheme out nationally and then on a global basis.

As everyone knows, most United fans live in Surrey and getting to Old Trafford can be such a trek.

Instead, United could flog them off to the likes of Crystal Palace and Brighton and the fans could save on their petrol bills.

The clubs' respective fans around the world could be sold off to the leagues in their country.

The MLS in America could have fans offloaded to their various franchises, likewise in Japan with the J-League and Australia with the A-League.

Ireland could be the richest market and virtually everyone north and south of the border supports either United or Liverpool in the island's new partition line.

United and Liverpool would have to offer a discounted rate to the Irish League and League of Ireland clubs, but they would more than make up the difference in volume.

You never know, it might get to the stage where people would support their local team again instead of being glory hunting fans of United and Liverpool.

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