Manchester United chief David Gill has scoffed at the anti-Glazer protesters' claims the club should be run like Barcelona.

Gill points out that unlike United, Barca and Real Madrid are able to negotiate their television contracts individually.

He told the Independent: "It does make me laugh when people talk about going to a membership model and say, "Look at Barcelona". I have great respect for the big Spanish clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, but why are they so successful? Yes, they have a membership model and they change the president every four years. But that is not why they are successful; it is because they sell their television rights individually. They get well over €100m [£103.4m annually].

"You look at the final league table and there are 25 points between Real Madrid in second and Valencia [who earn £38.7m] in third. They [Barcelona and Madrid] have got more money so, of course, they can attract the better players. We [United] have never done that and we don't get the credit for it. The owners [Glazers] come from a very collective selling market in the United States. Even more collective than it is over here. They have always been supportive of the Premier League collective."