The design for the new Manchester United stadium has been roasted on social media with football fans comparing it to various scenes from The Simpsons.
The Premier League club have unveiled new plans for a stadium to replace their iconic current home, Old Trafford, where they have played since 1909.
The state-of-the-art ground hopes to have a 100,000 capacity and has been backed by Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 13 league titles and two Champions Leagues in his reign at the Red Devils, who said new history could be made at a new stadium.
Proposals had been made to revamp the current Old Trafford but United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said that the ground had fallen behind the times. Ratcliffe configured the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, which includes the club’s former captain Gary Neville, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and chairman, Lord Coe.
The ambitious design, which the club want to complete within five years, features three masts, called "the trident", which the architects, Foster and Partners, say will be 200 metres high and visible from 25 miles away.
It is also set to feature an umbrella design and a public plaza which will be "twice the size of Trafalgar Square".
However, responses online to the initial illustrations have left many mystified, with memes comparing it to numerous moments from The Simpsons going viral.
A popular reference has been the hilariously bad car that Homer designed for his half-brother, in the season two episode “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Football analyst JJ Bull posted the image on X/Twitter, adding: “And I'm hearing that the teams have arrived at New Old Trafford.”
Another fan wrote: “Manchester United’s new stadium design has seemingly drawn inspiration from the Sit-N-Rotate restaurant from The Simpsons.”
Meanwhile, a Simpsons football meme account shared a clip of Homer molding a circus tent out of mashed potato in the season six episode “Homie the Clown”.
United are currently 14th in the Premier League but chief executive Omar Berrada said they want the finest ground, and team, in the global game.
He stated: “Our long-term objective as a club is to have the world’s best football team playing in the world’s best stadium. We are grateful for the feasibility work done by the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force exploring options for the future of Old Trafford. We have carefully considered its findings, together with the views of thousands of fans and local residents and concluded that a new stadium is the right way forward for Manchester United and our surrounding community. We will now embark on further consultation to ensure that fans and residents continue to be heard as we move towards final decisions.”
It comes after Ratcliff revealed how dire the financial situation had become at the club, which has been haemorrhaging millions of pounds each year over the past seven years and would, in Ratcliffe’s terms, have been “bust by Christmas”.
