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Association football club in England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, they were founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed their name to Manchester United in 1902. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester, the club moved to their current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910.
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| Full name | Manchester United Football Club | |||
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| Short name | Man United[2][3] Man Utd MUFC | |||
| Founded |
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| Ground | Old Trafford | |||
| Capacity | 74,310[4] | |||
| Owner | Manchester United plc (72.3%) Trawlers, Ltd. (27.7%)[5] | |||
| Co-chairmen | ||||
| Head coach | Ruben Amorim[6] | |||
| League | Premier League | |||
| 2023–24 | Premier League, 8th of 20 | |||
| Website | manutd.com | |||
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Domestically, Manchester United have won a record 20 top-flight league titles, 13 FA Cups, 6 League Cups and a record 21 FA Community Shields. Additionally, in international football, they have won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League three times, and the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup once each.[7][8] Appointed as manager in 1945, Matt Busby built a team with an average age of just 22 nicknamed the Busby Babes that won successive league titles in the 1950s and became the first English club to compete in the European Cup. Eight players were killed in the Munich air disaster, but Busby rebuilt the team around star players George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton – known as the United Trinity. They won two more league titles before becoming the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968.
After Busby's retirement, Manchester United were unable to produce sustained success until the arrival of Alex Ferguson, who became the club's longest-serving and most successful manager, winning 38 trophies including 13 league titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League titles between 1986 and 2013.[9] In the 1998–99 season, under Ferguson, the club became the first in the history of English football to achieve the continental treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League.[10] In winning the UEFA Europa League under José Mourinho in 2016–17, they became one of five clubs to have won the original three main UEFA club competitions (the Champions League, Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup).
Manchester United are one of the most widely supported football clubs in the world[11][12] and have rivalries with Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Leeds United. Manchester United were the highest-earning football club in the world for 2016–17, with an annual revenue of €676.3 million,[13] and the world's third-most-valuable football club in 2019, valued at £3.15 billion ($3.81 billion).[14] After being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club was taken private in 2005 after a purchase by American businessman Malcolm Glazer valued at almost £800 million, of which over £500 million of borrowed money became the club's debt.[15] From 2012, some shares of the club were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, although the Glazer family retains overall ownership and control of the club.
Manchester United were formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) depot at Newton Heath.[16] The team initially played games against other departments and railway companies, but on 20 November 1880, they competed in their first recorded match; wearing the colours of the railway company – green and gold – they were defeated 6–0 by Bolton Wanderers' reserve team.[17] By 1888, the club had become a founding member of The Combination, a regional football league. Following the league's dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance, which ran for three seasons before being merged with The Football League. This resulted in the club starting the 1892–93 season in the First Division, by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the "LYR" from its name.[16] After two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division.[16]
In January 1902, with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £370,000 in 2024[nb 1] – the club was served with a winding-up order.[18] Captain Harry Stafford found four local businessmen, including John Henry Davies (who became club president), each willing to invest £500 in return for a direct interest in running the club and who subsequently changed the name;[19] on 24 April 1902, Manchester United was officially born.[20][nb 2] Under Ernest Mangnall, who assumed managerial duties in 1903, Manchester United finished as Second Division runners-up in 1906 and secured promotion to the First Division, which they won in 1908 – the club's first league title. The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield[21] and ended with the club's first FA Cup title. Mangnall was considered a significant influence behind the team's move to Old Trafford in 1910, and Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in 1911.[22] At the end of the following season, however, Mangnall left the club to join Manchester City.[23]
In 1922, three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, where it remained until regaining promotion in 1925. Relegated again in 1931, Manchester United became a yo-yo club, achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in 1934, under secretary-manager Scott Duncan, narrowly avoiding relegation to the Third Division. Two years later, Duncan led the club to promotion before another relegation followed in 1937, which led to his resignation in November of that year. Following the death of principal benefactor John Henry Davies in October 1927, the club's finances deteriorated to the extent that Manchester United would likely have gone bankrupt had it not been for James W. Gibson, who, in December 1931, invested £2,000 and assumed control of the club.[24] In the 1938–39 season, the last year of football before the Second World War, the club finished 14th in the First Division.[24]
In October 1945, the impending resumption of football after the war led to the managerial appointment of Matt Busby, who demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers and training sessions.[25] Busby led the team to second-place league finishes in 1947, 1948 and 1949, and to FA Cup victory in 1948. In 1952, the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years.[26] They then won back-to-back league titles in 1956 and 1957; the squad, who had an average age of 22, were nicknamed "the Busby Babes" by the media, a testament to Busby's faith in his youth players.[27] In 1957, Manchester United became the first English team to compete in the European Cup, despite objections from The Football League, who had denied Chelsea the same opportunity the previous season.[28] En route to the semi-final, which they lost to Real Madrid, the team recorded a 10–0 victory over Belgian champions Anderlecht, which remains the club's biggest victory on record.[29]
The following season, on the way home from a European Cup quarter-final victory against Red Star Belgrade, the aircraft carrying the Manchester United players, officials and journalists crashed while attempting to take off after refuelling in Munich, Germany. The Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958 claimed 23 lives, including those of eight players – Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Duncan Edwards, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Billy Whelan – and injured several more.[30][31]
Assistant manager Jimmy Murphy took over as manager while Busby recovered from his injuries and the club's makeshift side reached the FA Cup final, which they lost to Bolton Wanderers. In recognition of the team's tragedy, UEFA invited the club to compete in the 1958–59 European Cup alongside eventual League champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite approval from The Football Association, The Football League determined that the club should not enter the competition, since it had not qualified.[32][33] Busby rebuilt the team through the 1960s by signing players such as Denis Law and Pat Crerand, who combined with the next generation of youth players – including George Best – to win the FA Cup in 1963. Busby rested several key players for the League game before the Cup Final which gave Dennis Walker the chance to make his debut against Nottingham Forest on 20 May. Walker thus became the first Black player to represent United.[34] The following season, they finished second in the league, then won the title in 1965 and 1967. In 1968, Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica 4–1 in the final[35] with a team that contained three European Footballers of the Year: Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best.[36] They then represented Europe in the 1968 Intercontinental Cup against Estudiantes of Argentina, but defeat in the first leg in Buenos Aires meant a 1–1 draw at Old Trafford three weeks later was not enough to claim the title. Busby resigned as manager in 1969 before being replaced by the reserve team coach, former Manchester United player Wilf McGuinness.
