{"id":1279994,"date":"2022-09-26T12:44:30","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1279994"},"modified":"2022-09-26T12:44:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:44:30","slug":"eric-cantona-man-utd-president-of-football-snubbed","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/eric-cantona-man-utd-president-of-football-snubbed\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Cantona: Man Utd snubbed my offer to become \u2018President of Football\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona has revealed he put himself forward to become the club\u2019s \u2018President of Football\u2019 \u2014 but former chief executive Ed Woodward rejected his offer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The footballer-turned-actor offered his services to Woodward before the polarising executive vice-chairman left his position in 2021. However, Woodward was unmoved by the Frenchman’s proposal to become the club’s footballing overseer.<\/p>\n

Cantona’s pitch involved him presiding over footballing matters strictly concerning Manchester United, while Woodward and his boardroom associates would focus predominantly on the marketing aspect of the sport.<\/p>\n

However, the pitch was ultimately snubbed. “Last year, I proposed to the club to change their way,” Cantona told The Athletic<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

“Ed Woodward is great at marketing but not great at football. United should have a chairman and then they should have a president of marketing and then a president of football, who is in charge of all the decision in football.<\/p>\n

“So I proposed to them that I should be president of football.<\/p>\n

“I met him [Woodward] a few times. But they did not accept it! I still think me or somebody else, they should have somebody for football.<\/p>\n

“It should be somebody from the club, who knows football and the club.<\/p>\n\n

“But they did not want me to be the president of the club! They did not want me! And the fans have to know that I went and travelled to Manchester to give them the opportunity to succeed in the next decades. And they did not want it!”<\/p>\n

Man Utd have been in a constant state of flux since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, while their North West rivals (Liverpool and Manchester City) have dominated the Premier League landscape.<\/p>\n

Cantona has had little involvement in football since calling time on his playing days, forging a career as a actor and occasional director, though he has played his fair share of beach football for the France national team, and even served as a brief sporting director for New York Cosmos.<\/p>\n

Even so, Cantona said he would have dropped all of his work to help restore Manchester United back to the pinnacle of the sport, if he were given the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n

He added: “I felt guilty not trying to help this club to do better. I said to myself, ‘For five years I will put everything on hold and concentrate 100 per cent on that’.<\/p>\n

“And if I concentrate 100 per cent on that, then I can tell you, I would do it very well.<\/p>\n

“Now I feel good with myself. I tried. So nobody in my family can say I did not try anything to help United. They did not want it. That’s their choice. But I tried it.”<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n