The Glazers' reasons for wanting to buy East Bengal and what it could mean for Man Utd

Manchester United’s owners, the Glazer family, are in talks to take over Indian football club East Bengal.

The news came via the unlikely source of Indian cricket legend Sourav Ganguly, who spoke about the takeover talks in his guise as president of Board of Control for Cricket in India on Tuesday. “Yes we have spoken to them and others also. It will take 10 to 12 more days to know who will be the entity,” Ganguly said. Asked whether United’s owners would be joining East Bengal as investors, Ganguly added: "No no, as an owner."

United have previously been involved with East Bengal, but in a very different way. They had agreed to play a friendly against East Bengal at Yuvabharati Krirangan Stadium in Salt Lake, Kolkata, back in 2020, only for the Covid-19 pandemic to get in the way. But a takeover by the Glazer family, which is being arranged by a former Indian cricket captain, is quite a different story.

So how have the Glazer family got into negotiations to buy East Bengal? Why are they interested in buying the club? And how could such a takeover affect Manchester United? Allow to explain via the help of a long-time fan of the club and a sports business expert.

In sporting terms at least, East Bengal don’t look like a particularly attractive proposition right now. The club endured a miserable 2021/22 campaign in the Indian Super League, finishing bottom with just one win from 20 regular season matches.

According to East Bengal supporter Sanjoy, who runs the East Bengal News Analysis Twitter account and has been a fan of the club for more than 40 years, the problems started when long-term investor Kingfisher withdrew its sponsorship in May 2018.

“Our club East Bengal is going through rough times ever since