Manchester United considering changing club badge, admits Ed Woodward

The club's American owners are
considering restoring the words
'Football Club' to United's current
crest and insist they have no plans
to sell the club or rename Old
Trafford
Ed Woodward has revealed Manchester
United’s owners, the Glazer family, want
to restore the words 'Football Club' to
the team’s badge after 15 years.
United were lambasted by fans when they
removed the words from their 43-year-
old crest as part of a redesign in 1998.
And the club's executive vice chairman
has revealed the American owners have
reservations about the current badge,
which was launched seven years before
they bought the club.
"I didn’t like that change of badge," said
Woodward. "Joel [Glazer] didn’t like that
change. We will look at that and have a
think about that. We are a football club,
not a business.
"I described it to our staff that we are a
135-year-old club and that’s what you
have to remember. We are a football
club, a club with a capital C.
"Strapped to that is a commercial
business that’s going to fund a lot of the
player purchases going forward here and
we have to be supportive of both.
"We’ve got to make sure they co-exist
together but don’t impact each other and
that’s where we are trying to balance it."
Woodward, who has replaced long-time
chief executive David Gill, also insisted
the Glazers will not rename Old Trafford
and have no intention of selling the club,
despite its valuation soaring beyond €1.2
billion amid reported interest from
bidders in China and Qatar.
"The heritage is not just important it is
central to what we are trying to do," he
added. "As an example we will not
rename Old Trafford, the name is part of
the fabric of the club. It means something
to our fans.
"They are long-term owners, together
with our other shareholders. They first
bought the club eight years ago and there
won’t be any change for many, many
years."