For the corporate boxes and executive suites dotted around the Theatre of Dreams - the last place in the world where you would expect trouble to erupt - are becoming powder-keg areas on match days which are in danger of exploding at any minute.
SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP
For the corporate boxes and executive suites dotted around the Theatre of Dreams - the last place in the world where you would expect trouble to erupt - are becoming powder-keg areas on match days which are in danger of exploding at any minute.
The problem is that the ticket holders who hire out the corporate boxes and executive suites at Old Trafford are genuine United supporters - but many of their business clients may not be of the same Red persuasion.
So an unhealthy situation has developed at the Reds' home games where pockets of rival supporters are assembled in the corporate boxes and executive suites smack bang in the middle of sections reserved for the United supporters.
The locals - not un-naturally you might think - do not take kindly to having the 'enemy' in their midst and have taken to expressing their displeasure in no uncertain terms.
Well, at least it's safe to assume that covering the glass frontage of the boxes with spittle is their way of telling the well-heeled intruders that they are not welcome.
Manchester United - again not un-naturally - are also taking a dim view of the situation and have written to the purchasers of their corporate boxes and executives suites advising them to be more careful about who they bring along to Old Trafford in a business package and pointing out the obvious dangers of their clients loudly supporting Arsenal or Liverpool while surrounded by irate United supporters.
The Reds, it strikes me, are in a no-win situation on this issue.
The revenue which the corporate boxes and executive suites around Old Trafford generate each season is immense. The Reds cannot thank a wealthy supporter for handing them a wad of cash which would choke a camel with one breath and then tell him who can and who he cannot invite into his box with the next.
By the same token it is unrealistic of United to expect rival fans watching matches at Old Trafford from the boxes and suites not to support their own team. What do the Reds expect the box-holder to tell his Leeds United clients? Yes, you can come to the game - but don't utter a word when Leeds score.
Rather than issue a veiled warning that the corporate-box holders who bring along rival supporters to Old Trafford could lose their season-tickets, might it not be a better idea for the Reds to step up the level of stewarding around those problem areas?
The situation which has developed in and around the boxes and suites on match days at Old Trafford is of Manchester United's own making.
United have taken the money and they have to live with the consequences, and if the consequences present a problem - as they obviously have in this case - then the onus is on the Reds to solve it. Not by confiscating season tickets or expecting rival fans not to support their own team.
But by ensuring - via their stewards - that every supporter of whatever persuasion behaves like a human being from the minute they set foot inside Old Trafford to the moment they leave.