HISTORY OF MANCHESTER UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB Manchester United Football Club is the most popular English football club in the world with more than 330 million supporters worldwide which is about 5%of the world population. The club is base at the Old Trafford stadium in Trafford, Greater Manchester. The club has played the top division of English football since 1975 and was a founding member of the Premier League in 1992and also of G-14 group of Europe’s leading football clubs and its replacement, the European Club Association. Manchester club is the second most successful club in the history of English football and the most successful of the recent times. The club has been one of the richest of any football club with the highest revenue since the late 1990s. In 1878 the club was founded as Newton Heath L&YR Football Club as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. The jersey of the club was green and gold halves. Before going to Bank Street in Clayton in 1893, they played on North Road near the future site of the Manchester Piccadilly railway station for fifteen years. In 1892 the club has entered the Football League and started to dissolve the links with the rail depot to become an independent company by appointing a club secretary. The club dropped the “L&YR” from their name to become Newton Heath Football club. But in 1902 the club was on the verge of bankruptcy with more than £2500 debts and at one point the bailiffs closed their Bank Street ground. The club received a sizeable investment from J.H. Davies who was the managing director of Manchester Breweries just before shutting down. It is being said that the club captain, Harry Stafford was showing off his St. Bernard dog when Davies approached him to buy the dog at a club fund raiser. Stafford declined but persuaded Davies to invest and to become the club chairman. In one of the early board meetings it was decided that the club requires a change of name for a new start and Louis Rocca, a young immigrant from Italy suggested the name Manchester United. The name came in to existence on 26 April 1902 and Davis decided to change the colour of the jersey to red and white instead of the green and gold halves. After James West had resigned as the manager on 28 September 1902, Ernest Mangnall was appointed as the secretary who tried to get the club in to First Division but could not do it at the first attempt and finished 5th in Division Two. Before going to First Division under the new name, the club got second place in Second Division in 1905-06. The club won the first league title in 1908 and won 16 titles of premier league in the following years including the first one. The club got 11 FA Cup, League cup in 1992 and 2006, 16 titles of FA charity/community Shield out of which 4 is shared, 2 time champions of UEFA in 1968 and 1999, UEFA cup winners’ cup in 1991 and European Super Cup in 1991. The club also won the Intercontinental cup/ World Club Championship in 1999. |
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