Manchester United Owners Publicly Lambasted by Bayern Munich President

Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has launched a scathing attack on Manchester United's much maligned owners, the Glazer family.

The Glazers have rarely encountered such a public admonishment of their controversial business model of Manchester United, having saddled the Premier League giants with £433 million worth of debt during their seven year tenure, from such a high profile figure in football.

The American owners borrowed £540 million in order to engineer their Manchester United takeover in May 2005 and have subsequently been paying in excess of £40 million-a-year in interest.

While the club's meticulous and perhaps at times, cynical, marketing strategy has more their doubled their annual commercial revenue, the club are continuing to service their vast debts.

Hoeness believes the Florida based family are driven solely by the financial gains on offer from Manchester United, and in doing so, due to their limited knowledge of football and the lack of transparency over their motives, the Bayern Munich president intimates they are undermining the sport and its traditions.

"Before Mr Glazer bought Manchester United, he didn't know there was air in the ball," Hoeness told Bloomberg, as quoted in The Daily Mail.

"That's not something that I accept. His target is making money."

In addition to criticising the Glazer family's motives, Hoeness lambasted the American billionaire for the level of debt now burdening Manchester United.

"I would accept Mr Glazer immediately if he said, 'okay the price of Manchester United is £800m - that's my money, my risk and now we are working'." He continued. "But what did he do? He bought the club and said, 'I don't have the money how can we finance it?' That's something I never accept."

Manchester United issued a swift response to Hoeness' barb, by insisting the global reputation and its revenues had significantly improved under their guidance.

A statement from the club read: "The Glazer family have been integral in boosting of the club's revenues, which have seen Manchester United become world leaders in the breadth and depth of our commercial partnerships."

In November, the Manchester United supremo found an unlikely ally, when Arsenal's notoriously evasive owner, Stan Kroenke, described the Glazer family as the ideal owners suggesting the facts speak for themselves.

Asked about Manchester United fans' green and gold protests against their owners, Kroenke told The Times: "But they won. And they have increased revenues by a huge amount. If I was a fan of that club, I would sit there and go, 'Wow.' Because how could you do it any better?"

The Arsenal supremo suggested the way the Glazer's operate Manchester United is common practice in America and intimated their critics should look at the Premier League champion's recent record as evidence of its success.

"We have a whole different philosophy I think in the States, maybe, but it's time maybe for everybody to think a little bit . . . about who invests in these clubs. What do you want for the long term? Because in the States, you would never get this dialogue that you and I are having. 'He took money out of the club.' So what?" Kroenke continued.

"Jerry Buss [the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team] takes money out of the club. A lot of owners in the US do. No one ever says anything about it. What's it about, in fairness? Did the Lakers win anything? Well, yeah. They did. How big's their revenue? Pretty darn good."

Manchester United are believed to be considering floating the club on the Singapore Stock Exchange in mid-2012 in the hope of raising more than £600 million, but although the Glazers have regularly denied the suggestion the club could be sold, the Red Devils were recently linked with a Qatari based buy out.