A bitter atmosphere threatens to spoil Saturday's English FA Cup Final-a showpiece that remains to many fans soccer's equivalent of American football's SuperBowl and the baseball World Series. Fans of Manchester United-the "red devils"-who play fierce rivals Arsenal in the final, plan to abandon their usual red scarves and joyful (at least when they are winning) singing in favour of black flags and protest. The focus of their ire is Malcolm Glazer, an American shopping-mall tycoon and owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an American football team. This week Mr Glazer declared victory in his long battle to buy United. Death threats have been made against him. Mr Glazer's main offence seems to be that he is a businessman who intends to run United as a business. That is not what owners of British sports teams-or, indeed, of teams in most of the world-are meant to do. Businessmen and other wealthy folk, even foreigners, are welcome as owners-but only if they plan to put money into a team, not take it out.
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