Joel Glazer speaks as he lifts Super Bowl LV trophy & his role at Man Utd

Manchester United haven’t won the Premier League since 2013, but the Glazer family’s other sports team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, won the NFL’s famous Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night after victory over the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.

The Bucs were led to victory by veteran quarterback Tom Brady, who has now personally won more Super Bowl championships than any team in the history of the NFL. As is customary in U.S. sports, the owners, rather than the players or coaching staff, were the first to get their hands on the trophy and Joel Glazer first held it aloft on behalf of the Tampa Bay organisation.

“My father had an expression, if you want to know the road ahead, ask the person that's been there. We found that person. Ten Super Bowl appearances, seven victories...Tom Brady,” he gleefully said.

Two weeks, earlier Glazer had accepted the George Halas Trophy when the Buccaneers won the NFC Championship game to reach a first Super Bowl since last winning it in 2003. Patriarch Malcolm Glazer, who died at the age of 85 in 2014, had initially bought the franchise in 1995.

“We're so happy. I'm so proud of all these players, so proud of [coach] Bruce Arians, the entire team. And Tampa, we're coming home,” Joel Glazer said after the NFC triumph, referencing the fact that the Bucs were to play the Super Bowl at their own Raymond James Stadium.

They were, perhaps surprisingly, the first team to reach a Super Bowl being hosted in their home stadium and therefore also the first and only to win one on familiar turf.

Joel Glazer's role at Manchester United

But public comments from anyone in the Glazer family are rare and close to unheard of regarding their simultaneous ownership of Manchester United. They usually make a point of protecting their privacy and no Glazer has spoken on the record about United since 2005 when Joel gave an interview to MUTV shortly after the controversial takeover was completed.

Joel Glazer is co-chairman of United alongside brother Avram, while four other Glazer siblings sit as non-executive directors on the club’s board.

Bryan, Kevin, Edward and Darcie appear to have virtually nothing to do with United other than benefitting financially from lucrative dividends, profiting from their late father’s hostile leveraged buyout that plunged the previously debt-free club over £800m into the red.

Joel and Avram are thought to be much more involved, even though they operate very much in the background and leave the day to day operations and public image to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, a trusted accomplice and right-hand man who first came to their attention when he helped push through the initial takeover as an ambitious young investment banker.

The Manchester Evening News reported in 2019 that Joel speaks to Woodward on a ‘daily basis’, while Avram is also often in touch. But the brothers, who were once seen fairly regularly in the stands at Old Trafford on matchdays, haven’t been to a game since the opening day of the 2019/20 season. The coronavirus pandemic has no doubt contributed to that ongoing absence, but there were still more than six months of games they could have attended before the world shut down.

Joel Glazer's favourite United player

Stateside, Joel doesn’t live in Tampa itself but has still been at every game this NFL season. But despite his non-appearance at Old Trafford for close to two years, the MEN has reported this month from a senior source that his involvement with United remains ‘full-time’ and ‘fully engaged’.

Indeed, Joel Glazer seems to be involved enough in the decision making processes at Old Trafford that he is rumoured to have blocked the club from attempting to sell Anthony Martial in 2017 and 2018. The Frenchman is said to be his favourite United player.

The Glazers, and in particular Avram, have been defended by former United star Patrice Evra in recent months, with the retired left-back suggesting the Americans may have been too trusting of some of the people they leave in daily control.

“I will say a sensitive name, Avram Glazer, Joel Glazer. I met Avram many times and I know a lot of United fans hate the Glazers but, trust me, Avram loves Manchester United and he cares about the club,” Evra stated in an upload to Instagram back in September 2020.

“When I had a meeting with him, I gave him some feedback he wasn’t aware of maybe the people he trusts and the people in charge don’t give him the right information.”

Ed Woodward on the Glazers

Woodward hinted that the Glazers are here to stay when he spoke to popular and well-connected fanzine United We Stand at a time when there were lots of rumours about a Saudi-backed takeover.

“Based on what I see, they're in it for the long-term,” Woodward explained in that interview.

“The debt is a long-term, structured and similar to some other football clubs. It's a fixed amount for a fixed period of time which results in it being fairly cheap to service. It's just under two per cent our annual revenue each year, so it doesn't really have any impact on us.

“If you look at the way the approach changed under the Glazers for commercial activity, that has brought in an extra £2.5bn - £3.5bn. We have spent a lot of money on players.”

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