Manchester Unlimited

Manchester United, Britain's best supported club, and possibly the world's most famous football club, is now also one of the world's most profitable sporting organizations. Turnover for 1997 was #97.8 million, out of which merchandizing represented #29 million. The original intention of the stock market flotation of 1991 was to raise the #6.7 million required to build a new spectator stand. Instead CEO Martin Edwards took the opportunity to turn the club into the meanest marketing operation in European sport, by exploiting to the full the brand name of Manchester United F.C. At the end of the 1990s, it is the subject of a #625-million mega bid by Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB. In this work, Mihir Bose examines the business success of the club. Through exclusive interviews with the leading characters, Bose reveals how United so transformed itself that it is now virtually in a league of its own, on and off the pitch. This book is as much about the transformation of Manchester United into a money-making machine as it is about football in general and the money which has poured into the game since 1994. It includes the inside story of the highly controversial BSkyB deal.