Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.
In 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United was the first English football club to win the European Cup, ten years after the Munich air disaster that claimed the lives of eight players. The current manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is the most successful manager in English football history, having won 26 major honours since he took over in November 1986.[3][4]
Having won 18 league titles, four League Cups and a record 11 FA Cups,[5] Manchester United is one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football. The club has also won three European Cups and is unique in having won a Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League Treble, in the 1998–99 season.
Manchester United is one of the wealthiest and most widely supported football teams in the world.[6][7][8][9] The club is said to be worth £1.13 billion, making it the most valuable football club in the world.[10] After being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club was purchased by Malcolm Glazer in May 2005 in a deal valuing the club at almost £800 million.[11]

History

A chart showing the progress of Manchester United F.C. through the English football league system from joining as Newton.
Manchester United was formed as Newton Heath LYR Football Club by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath.[12] The team initially played games against other departments and rail companies, but on 20 November 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.[13],The club had become a founding member of The Combination, a regional football league. However, following the league's dissolution after just 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 rail company and dropped the "LYR" from its name.[12] After just two seasons, the club was relegated to the Second Division.[12]

The Manchester United team at the start of the 1905–06 season, in which they were runners-up in the Second Division
In January with debts of £2,670 – equivalent to £210,000 as of 2011[14] – the club was served with a winding-up order.[15] 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;[16] on 24 April 1902, Manchester United was officially born.[17][18] Under Ernest Mangnall, who assumed managerial duties in 1903, the team 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[19] and ended with the club's first FA Cup title Manchester.