David Gill

[rondwisan]

31/07/2010 07:00 - ManUtd.com, Gemma Thompson in Guadalajara
Exclusive Q&A: David Gill



Chief executive David Gill took time out from his busy tour schedule to talk to us…

How pleased are you with how the tour of North America has gone?
It’s gone very well and it’s been a trip everyone, including the players, have really enjoyed. Preparations for the new season have gone well on the training pitch and the facilities have been fantastic as they always are in America. So overall we’re very pleased.

What did you make of the support for the team during the trip?
It was great. The fans are very knowledgeable in America and enjoy their football. The fact we played against MLS teams on this trip rather than just British or European teams in the past made for some great atmospheres at the games because you had pockets of MLS fans supporting their team as well as coming to watch ours. So that was another interesting aspect of the tour and it also provided the players with a good test because the MLS sides are halfway through their season so their match fitness was spot on.

The reception for Chicharito in Mexico was something else…It was fantastic. Firstly it was great to see him get a goal on his debut. It was the icing on the cake of a superb match in Houston. To have a crowd of that magnitude in such a fantastic stadium witness a game of real attacking football was very enjoyable for everyone. Javier was given a great reception in Houston, but it was an amazing to see the welcome for him in Mexico.

Despite the adulation, he seems like a very level-headed guy who will fit in well…
Yes, he’s settled in very well already. We always do our homework on a player’s personality and temperament, as well as their ability when we’re looking at possible new signings and Javier fits the bill all round. We saw his talent and eye for goal at the World Cup and under the guidance of Alex and the coaching staff and playing alongside some great players at our club, he’s got every opportunity to do really well.

How pleased were you to get the deal with Nemanja Vidic agreed?
We were delighted to agree the deal with Nemanja. You always want to retain your best players and make sure they’re under contract for as long as possible, as well as look at potential new signings.

Have you been surprised at the lack of the activity in the transfer market this summer?
Well, there’s been one exception obviously! With the World Cup being on not a lot went on in June, but I think there will be more movement in August as clubs look at their squads, and I think there will be some trimming because of the squad limits being introduced in the Premier League. We have to name at least eight ‘home-grown’ players in a squad of 25 by 1 September. It’s something we need to consider from now on when we’re looking at new players to see how they will affect the squad balance.

Midway through the tour it was reported you flew back to Manchester to sign a player…I have no idea where that came from! I can confirm I didn’t fly back though. As I’ve said before we’re always looking at things and I’m not saying we won’t do any business before the transfer window closes, but at the moment there’s nothing imminent.

Presumably it’s something you’re talking to the boss about all the time…
Yes, Alex and I are always having discussions. We talk to the scouts and Alex talks to Mick and Rene, so things are continually being assessed. As I said, we’re always looking at things as well as monitoring the young players coming through. We want to go into the season with a squad which is a mix of youth and experience and I think we have that. The World Cup players are back in training and we have added Chris Smalling and Javier to the squad. We’re all looking forward to the start of the season and challenging for trophies once more. Hopefully it’ll be another successful campaign for us.

[Andi Istiabudi]

Manchester United boss David Gill plays ball with Unicef
By Graham Ruddick, in Senegal

David Gill visits the project set up by the Premier League club to support the international charity.

It is an unlikely sight. The chief executive of Manchester United, one of the world's biggest football clubs, is dancing with grandmothers in an African village.

The grandmothers, a vital influence over the village community, have gathered to give a speech thanking David Gill and United for supporting the work of Unicef in the area.

After a discussion about how the village can combat malaria, the grandmothers then break into an impromptu African dance and invite Gill to get involved, which he reluctantly does.

"You have done something my wife can never do and got me on the dance floor without alcohol by 3pm," he tells them.

The reception provided for Gill in Ngarigne Bambara, a village south of Dakar in Senegal, has been replicated across the African country during a two-day visit.

He is here to analyse the progress of the United for Unicef partnership, a venture created in 1999 to fund charity work across the world.

The latest stage of the project is a £1m donation from the football club to fund child care in Senegal, a country where one child in eleven fails to survive their fifth birthday and a quarter of all babies are born prematurely.

Unicef is using the first £600,000 to equip 35 child survival centres in Senegal with training for staff, motorbikes to deliver vaccines and fridges to store drugs.

At the villages where health centres are already operating, Gill has been greeted like one of his players. The streets are lined with children and their fathers wearing football shirts, and they all want a photo with the United chief executive, who has been in the role
since 2003.

By the end of the two day, Gill has administered a polio vaccine, visited a football club for children in Dakar and weighed a baby at a village health centre specialising in child nutrition, where he then listens to speeches from the mayor, an Imam and the local football team who have gathered to meet the 54-year-old.

"Its not me, its Manchester United and Unicef doing that," he says of the reception. "It could be anyone else here and they would get that reception I think. It brings home we can clearly be a change for good."

Gill is not a man used to being so warmly welcomed. He has become the target of protests by disgruntled United fans against the Glazer family, owners of the football club since 2005. After Gill initially opposed the Glazer's takeover bid because of concerns about the level of debt it would pile on to the debt-free club, critics have questioned why the chief executive stayed at the club and why he supports a regime that has left United still paying £45m a year in annual interest payments.

"They made it clear to me they wanted me to stay," he says of the American owners. "I got approached to go back to work in industry and quoted entities. But I joined Manchester United in 1997 from a quoted company because I saw it had great potential, was a very varied job and its financing wasn't complicated versus First Choice [his previous employer]. I love football."

With United top of the Premier League after an unbeaten start to the season, the most pressing issue for Gill appears to be a potential float of the football club in Singapore.

The Glazer family has received approval to press ahead with the controversial listing and is understood to be planning to float around 25pc of United at a value of $1bn (£643m). However, the shares could have voting powers of just 12pc under an IPO structure being examined by them.

"It's a potential," says Gill in his first public comments on the IPO. "I think the finances of the club are in robust health in terms of the bond interest against the EBITDA that we do have, so in that respect I am not concerned. But it was an opportunity, and is a potential opportunity, to strengthen them even further. If the proceeds were by and large used to pay down the bond debt then that would take some of the interest costs out."

The United chief executive claims he is "not intimately involved in the process" and it is a "decision for the owners".

"In my view the owners are astute businessmen and if they thought it would not be beneficial to the club – not just them, but the club – they wouldn't do it," he explains.

With stock markets in turmoil, however, plans for the IPO are thought to have been shelved by the Glazers and their army of advisers – which include Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse.

"It is not officially on hold but the owners will be taking appropriate advice from the advisers and determining what the markets are telling us," Gill added. "But I don't think it's the level of the market, it is the sheer volatility. That's the challenge."

If the club does float at a valuation of $4bn, it will represent a substantial profit for the Glazer family, who bought it for £790m. Commercial revenues have risen from £45m after their first full-year of ownership to more than £100m in the year to June 30 as the club posted record revenues of £331.4m with an operating profit of £110m.

"At the time Manchester United had something of a reputation for being one of the more advanced commercially driven clubs but they saw there was more to go and the results for the last six years have proved that in spectacular fashion," says Gill.

Key recent commercial deals have include a £40m four-year sponsorship deal with DHL for United's training kits. For many fans, however, the potential returns for the Glazers from a flotation are another example of the profits they have taken from the club. Supporters groups, such as the Manchester United Supporters Trust, believe the debt of more than £500m put on the club after the takeover has restricted its activity in the transfer market. The Glazers have also been criticised for more than doubling the prices of some tickets during their time in charge and taking out £10m in management fees and a loan, which was revealed in the prospectus for a £500m bond issue last year. A group of wealthy United fans dubbed the Red Knights, including Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, even approached the club about buying out the Glazers but it came to nothing.

"It [the debt] hasn't been a problem," insists Gill. "There have been a lot of comments and a lot of criticism. On the one hand, you argue clearly our interest costs have gone up now as a limited company, but it is not 45 to 0 because as a listed company we had corporation tax payments, we had dividend payments. The owners have never been anything other than 100pc supportive on delivering to Alex [Sir Alex Ferguson] or me the players we need to keep ourselves going, but people don't believe us.

"If you look at it, we are spending £13m revamping Carrington [the training ground] and we have just completed this summer at Old Trafford our box redevelopment. There has never been any money that we have needed to develop the club that hasn't come forward."

Gill, who will have the unenviable task of finding a replacement for Sir Alex as manager of United, says the club still recognises it has a duty to its fans all over the world. It is one of the reasons why United launched its partnership with Unicef in 1999 and renewed it with the Senegal pledge last year.

The 1999 deal was the club's first tie-up with an international charity and a reflection of its growing global reach. Unicef remains the club's exclusive overseas charity and is joined by Manchester-based cancer charity, The Christie and Francis House children's hospice, as partners of the Manchester United Foundation.

Gill said: "We, like a lot of football clubs, understand the power of football and the power of our players to help. We are a relatively small businesses in terms of manpower, revenue etc, but in terms of our calling card we are huge.

"Unicef ticks all the boxes in terms of it's a worldwide brand, people know about it and recognise it. Also, clearly it's children. Footballers and our fans start as children. We have young players as children so we very much understand the importance of children in today's world and what they mean for the future."

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk

[Andi Istiabudi]

Alhamdulillah misinya berhasil

David Gill reveals lengths Manchester United went to keep Sir Alex Ferguson in dark over stand tribute
By Mark Ogden

Manchester United chief executive David Gill insisted on a top secret mission to rename Old Trafford’s North Stand in Sir Alex Ferguson’s honour in order to prevent the 69-year-old from learning of the tribute before its announcement on Saturday.


Secret: Manchester United went to great lengths to prevent Sir Alex Ferguson from learning about his tribute

The 25,500-capacity stand will now be known as the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand following Gill’s decision to mark the Scot’s 25th anniversary as Manchester United manager.

A statue of Ferguson by renowned sculptor Phillip Jackson has also been commissioned by the club.

But in an effort to prevent news of the tribute leaking out, the re-lettering of the stand took place under cover of darkness on Thursday night, finishing at 2am on Friday morning, before being covered by a 20-metre banner which read ‘Old Trafford, Manchester.’

Six abseilers took part in the re-lettering on the roof of the stand and everyone involved was ordered to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Only eight people within Old Trafford knew of the plans, which Gill had only revealed to the small group on Wednesday evening.

A further meeting, on Friday evening, resulted in Gill telling the group of the plans for a statue, which were also subject to strict confidentiality.

The press release announcing the renaming of the stand and plans for a statue wasn’t printed until the day of the game and no other staff, including club photographers, were informed until 2.45pm – five minutes before Gill made the announcement alongside Ferguson in the Old Trafford centre circle.

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk

[irfi_1]

mr. gill kpn nih United ke Indonesia?..menunggu realisasi janji anda mr. gill...

[Andi Istiabudi]

Originally Posted by irfi_1

mr. gill kpn nih United ke Indonesia?..menunggu realisasi janji anda mr. gill...

Pertanyaan diatas mungkin bisa disampaikan langsung melalui email ke : enquiries@MANUTD.co.uk

Pastinya tidak cuma @irfi_1 yang berharap Manchester United kembali mengunjungi Indonesia tapi kita semua juga berharap demikian, hehehe ...

[taz_devil_utd]

OOT dikit, adakah thread di sini yang membahas tentang Jessica, anaknya David Gill? (dan foto2nya tentunya )

Dulu penasaran bgt setelah liat ada cewe cakep di sebelahnya David, dan setelah diselidiki ternyata dia adalah Jessica. Tampaknya minim sekali info tentang dirinya..

Bagi yang belum liat videonya si Jess pas lawan Bolton musim lalu
(ga nemu video dari youtube)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video....48422398556489

[Andi Istiabudi]

Originally Posted by taz_devil_utd

OOT dikit, adakah thread di sini yang membahas tentang Jessica, anaknya David Gill? (dan foto2nya tentunya )

Setahu saya sih tidak ada

[Redsbusby]

Originally Posted by taz_devil_utd

OOT dikit, adakah thread di sini yang membahas tentang Jessica, anaknya David Gill? (dan foto2nya tentunya )

Dulu penasaran bgt setelah liat ada cewe cakep di sebelahnya David, dan setelah diselidiki ternyata dia adalah Jessica. Tampaknya minim sekali info tentang dirinya..

Bagi yang belum liat videonya si Jess pas lawan Bolton musim lalu
(ga nemu video dari youtube)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video....48422398556489

Karena dy jg bagian dr keluarganya gill mungkin bisa disini bro, nah masalahnya adalah source nya nyaris ngga ada untuk ngeshare mengenai si jessica gill ini

[irfi_1]

Originally Posted by Andi Istiabudi

Pertanyaan diatas mungkin bisa disampaikan langsung melalui email ke : enquiries@MANUTD.co.uk

Pastinya tidak cuma @irfi_1 yang berharap Manchester United kembali mengunjungi Indonesia tapi kita semua juga berharap demikian, hehehe ...

permasalahannya english saya masih kacau..hohoho

[Andi Istiabudi]

Originally Posted by irfi_1

permasalahannya english saya masih kacau..hohoho

Nanti bisa dibantu kok
Dicoba saja dulu yach ...