Manchester United’s botched attempt to join the European Super League was the turning point in the Glazers’ ownership of the club and across the football business world at large.

For years before the launch in April 2021, the Glazer family had seen the Super League as their golden ticket to monetising United beyond dividend payments, management fees or equity sales.

The problem with football, from the Glazers’ perspective, was that it is a highly competitive industry with volatile revenue streams and adversarial dynamics among the ownership class.

Almost no clubs make profits in the Premier League, or indeed anywhere else. Even for giants like Man United, who in a strong season can expect turnover of £700m-plus, costs – player wages, transfer fees, administrative expenses and so on – exceed revenues.

The Super League would have rewired the beautiful game’s market forces and seen its 12 founder members generate profits every year thanks to a closed-shop, mafioso-style franchise system.

That’s why United and Liverpool, bitter rivals on the terraces but bedfellows in the boardroom, worked so closely together on the breakaway competition. It’s a concept that is completely alien to bedrock fans, but Avram Glazer and the five other siblings ultimately care about profits, not glory. If United pick up a trophy here and there, great, but silverware is a means to the Glazer family, not an end.

Of course, the Glazer family ultimately relented to the righteous fury of United fans, whose protests crushed the Super League and started a chain reaction that led the UK to introduce the Independent Football Regulator, who have the power to block future insurrections.

However, Avram Glazer’s latest proposed business venture shows that the family’s U-turn wasn’t borne of some Damascene conversion. It was always about profit.

Avram Glazer attempting IPL takeover to do what he couldn’t with the European Super League, says expert

Last week, Avram Glazer reportedly submitted a £1.3bn offer to buy reigning Indian Premier League champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Rajasthan Royals are also said to be on his hit list.

The oldest Glazer sibling has long had ambitions in cricket, the second most watched sport on the planet. In 2021, shortly after the Super League collapse, he failed in a bid to buy one of two IPL expansion franchises. A few months later, he bought Desert Vipers, who compete in the ILT20 league in the United Arab Emirates. More recently, he tried – and failed – to buy a team in England’s Hundred competition.

Average revenues for IPL franchises are far, far more modest than what Manchester United earn. In the last financial year, they turned over just north of £40m. Several clubs in the Championship – including those without parachute payments – can hit those heights in any given season.

The difference, however, is profit and scalability.

“The big challenge for those who want to make money out of football is that you don’t have guaranteed revenues because the very lucrative competitions, such as the Champions League, are only available to a few clubs each season,” explains University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire in exclusive conversation with United in Focus.

“Yes, we are likely to have five Premier League clubs in the Champions League going forward, which favours United. That was one of the concessions that Manchester United and the other European Super League clubs managed to extract from UEFA. But the frustration for Avram Glazer is that if you contrast the Premier League to the NFL or IPL, for example, you don’t get very many advert breaks. Those competitions are marketing products with a sport bolted on to keep people tuned in. Cricket is like that because you get natural breaks at the end of every over and wicket, so it’s exactly what you want from an advertiser’s perspective.

“I think Avram Glazer is probably ruing not getting in earlier. He certainly had bids rejected because he tried to low-ball, but this time it looks like he’s going to pay the market rate.

“His frustration as a football club owner is that it’s not a commercially-orientated product. With the Super League, he was in favour of splitting the game into four quarters so they could serve more adverts, remember. I suspect he will have been watching the success or otherwise of in-match advertising that we’ve seen in rugby and one or two other sports. There is always the potential that could be incorporated in the next domestic TV deal. That could be beneficial for clubs because it means Sky could pay more, which would then be redistributed among United and their peers.

“The Glazers have seen the success in John Henry and FSG with the multi-sport model and they are probably now trying to head off the likes of FSG in Indian cricket, which is by far the most popular sport in the most populated country on earth.”

Man United got Super League-lite with Champions League revamp

Last week, Real Madrid formally abandoned their attempts to revive the European Super League.

In doing so, they became the final club to walk away from A22 Sports Management, the organisation that Super League holdouts set up to revive the competition and make it more palatable to fans.

But while it might seem that Real and their peers, including United, have failed completely with Super League, the reality is more nuanced.

It was the threat of Super League – whether by that name or another – that led UEFA to modify the Champions League, with its new league phase format and financial distribution system proving extraordinarily lucrative for the existing elite.

United aren’t in Europe this year, but their raw spending power means that, even when they are completely mismanaged, they have a strong chance of qualification each and every season.

Should Michael Carrick get them into the Champions League this season, United will bank £50m-plus before a ball is even kicked in 2026-27. A good run in the competition can be worth £125m in prize money, as well as £30m-plus in matchday income.

What’s more, the post-Super League politicking has led to the European Football Clubs (EFC) organisation, formerly known as the European Club Association (ECA), becoming more powerful than ever before.

United are represented by Jean-Claude Blanc at the EFC, who is one of only a handful of board members.

After previously being one of the casualties of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s many behind-the-scenes reshuffles, Blanc has reconsolidated his power at Ineos Sport, where he is CEO alongside his role at Ratcliffe-owner OGC Nice. He is playing a more prominent role at Old Trafford too, with a commercial focus.