Divided we stand | Charles V Abela

LOGLINE After two years of clandestine maneuvers manipulating share prices, a Manchester hero and a Japanese white knight seize control of the world's most famous football club, entrusting it to its core devoted fans. INTRODUCTION Jack Jones is fifty-seven. The memories of his father recounting the horrendous suffering and human loss torment him to this day. They were the catastrophic events that drove a dagger in the heart of the little mining community in his home town of Aberfan, Wales, in October 1966. The hard life and lung disease in the coal mines made his family try its luck in Salford, a city in Greater Manchester where football passion is omnipresent. Manchester Old Boys is his team, with Liverpool being a second favourite, certainly then. Furthermore, Jack is traumatised and haunted by the tragic events of Hillsborough that he witnessed first-hand on 15th April 1989. Many of those who survived ended up being quadriplegic. Their suffering is beyond physical. Like many others, they are constantly denied the satisfaction in attending weekly matches to watch their favourite football team in action. These folks are hardly ever listened to properly, and most certainly no sympathetic ears are ever expected from the owners of the clubs, who often reside overseas. Control of the club would be the ultimate of dreams, but this is well outside and beyond everybody’s means. As a simple factory worker, Jack neither has the means nor the clout, and certainly he does not possess the negotiation skills required. With only a few days left in Fiona’s life, Jack makes a solemn promise to his dying family friend; to do his best to right what is wrong with the Manchester Old Boys club management, and look after her only son Peter, himself a paraplegic. And this commitment is what finally triggers him into action. While on a business trip to Japan with the Mayor, Jack’s son Oliver fortuitously meets a Japanese ‘white knight’ — Masaaki Fukada. He is the CEO of Tokusaka, a huge Tokyo conglomerate. He happens to be a great lover of British icons and always in search of acquisitions, none less than the Manchester Old Boys Football Club. True to his word, with the help of Jack and Oliver, Fukada’s deep pockets do the talking. He claws back control of the Old Boys from the Claytons. And he puts the Manchester fans at the helm of their club, helping Jack achieve his long-held aspiration relieving some of the suffering.