User:PeeJay/Ownership of Manchester United F.C.

The ownership of Manchester United Football Club has been held by several individuals since the club was established as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. in 1878. Originally owned by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, the club formed its own limited company in 1892, selling shares to local supporters. In 1902, John Henry Davies took over ownership and injected much-needed funds. After his death in 1927, the club faced bankruptcy yet again, but were saved by James W. Gibson in December 1931. Gibson promoted his son, Alan, to the board in 1948, but died three years later. Gibson's wife, Lilian, retained ownership of the club, but the position of chairman passed to former player Harold Hardman.

Promoted to the board a few days after the Munich air disaster, Louis Edwards, a friend of Matt Busby, began acquiring shares in the club and became chairman in 1965 after the death of Harold Hardman. Lilian Gibson died in January 1971, her shares passing to Alan Gibson. In 1978, Gibson, the leading shareholder at the time, sold a percentage of his shares to Louis Edwards' son, Martin, who became chairman when Louis died in 1980. Media tycoon Robert Maxwell attempted to buy the club in 1984, but baulked at the price that Edwards had set. An offer was also made by Michael Knighton in 1989, but his financial backers pulled out at the last minute. The sale collapsed, but Knighton was given a seat on the board of directors. Desperate for an injection of funds to help renovate the Old Trafford stadium, the club was floated on the stock market.

The club's success in the 1990s attracted a number of suitors, most notably Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting company, from whom Manchester United accepted a £623.4 million bid in September 1998. The sale was blocked by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in April 1999, but the club was eventually sold to American sports magnate Malcolm Glazer in 2005. Glazer de-listed the club from the Stock Exchange, reverting to private limited status, but also saddled the club with more than £700 million of debts.

Establishment and limited status

Manchester United F.C. was established in 1878 as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. by the employees of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company's Carriage & Wagon Works at Newton Heath. The company retained ownership of the club until 1892, when the club joined the Football League. No longer subsidised by the railway company, the club had to provide its own financial support, which it did through a £2,000 share issue, resulting in the birth of The Newton Heath Football Club Company Ltd. 2,000 shares were issued at the price of £1 each, to be paid in instalments of 2s 6d every two months.

As the decade progressed, the team's performances waned and they were relegated to the Second Division. Attendances began to dwindle and income was at a premium, and the club found itself £2,600 in debt by January 1902 and was declared bankrupt. A fund-raising bazaar had been organised by club captain Harry Stafford the previous year, at which the star attraction was Stafford's own St. Bernard dog. The dog had a collection barrel attached to its collar, but, halfway through the bazaar, the dog managed to escape, taking the contents of the barrel with it. Stafford eventually found the dog in the hands of John Henry Davies, a local brewer. Davies asked Stafford if he could buy the dog as a gift for his daughter, which led to Stafford convincing Davies to invest in Newton Heath. Davies and three other local businessmen invested £500 each in the club, in exchange for a controlling interest, and Davies himself was made club president by mid-1902.

John Henry Davies

As president, Davies first act was to rename the club as Manchester United Football Club and change the club colours from green and gold to red and white. He also promised £3,000 for player transfers to be paid as a loan, repayable at such time that the club was able to pay it back. He also appointed J. Ernest Mangnall as the club secretary, and within five years, Manchester United had clambered back into the First Division. The First Division title followed in 1908, and then the FA Cup in 1909. That same year, Davies invested £60,000 in a new stadium at Old Trafford, believing the possibility of expansion at the old ground in Bank Street, Clayton, to be too limited. The new stadium had an intended capacity of 100,000 fans, but had to be pulled back to 80,000 when construction estimates became too high.

Unfortunately, Davies only witnessed one more season in which the club won a major trophy – the First Division in 1911 – before war intervened. Nine years after the end of the First World War, John Henry Davies died, and with him went Manchester United's principal source of finance. The club was on the brink of the Second Division, and the situation was similar to 25 years before, as performances worsened and attendances dropped; the supporters' club even voted to boycott one match in 1930. Relegation followed in 1931, and bankruptcy beckoned yet again, only for the club to be saved by another local investor.

James W. Gibson

Thirty years after John Henry Davies et al. had donated £2,000 to the Manchester United cause, James W. Gibson did the same, saving the club from bankruptcy for the second time. In exchange for being named club chairman, he also provided the club with an extra £30,000. By 5 January 1932, Gibson had been elected to the board as a director, and two weeks later he was elected as both chairman and president. One of his first acts as chairman was to appoint a new manager; Scott Duncan was appointed, but his team yo-yoed between the First and Second Divisions in the years leading up to the Second World War and he resigned just two months into the 1937–38 season. The season before war broke out, under the guidance of club secretary Walter Crickmer, United avoided the drop, securing First Division status for after the war.

Old Trafford had suffered extensive bomb damage during the war and Gibson lobbied the government for financial support for the ten football clubs affected by German bombing. However, it was not until 1948 that any funds were received, meaning that Old Trafford could not be properly rebuilt until 1949. The club therefore to spend the first two years of league football after the war ground-sharing with local rivals Manchester City, paying City £5,000 plus a percentage of the gate receipts for the privilege.

Nevertheless, on 15 February 1945, former Manchester City and Liverpool player Matt Busby met with Gibson to discuss the available job as manager of the club. Gibson offered Busby a three-year contract, but the Scot held out for an extra two-years, to which the chairman agreed. Busby also demanded much greater control over the affairs of the team, such as the selection of his own coaching staff and the lee-way to deal with playing matters as he saw fit. This was unheard of at the team, as such things were usually dealt with by a committee headed by the club secretary, but Gibson recognised Manchester United's dire situation and allowed Busby the responsibilities he sought.

Gibson had also overseen the founding of the Manchester United Junior Athletic Club, the brainchild of Walter Crickmer and Louis Rocca, in response to the lack of home-grown talent coming through the ranks at Old Trafford. The MUJAC was a forerunner of the club's modern Academy and went on to produce the likes of Jack Rowley, Stan Pearson and Charlie Mitten, all of whom were involved in the club's 1948 FA Cup Final victory. However, Gibson's death by heart attack in 1951 meant that he would never see the performances of the Busby Babes, the 1948 FA Cup being the only major trophy won by United under Gibson's chairmanship.

Harold Hardman

After James Gibson's death, ownership of his majority shareholding passed to his wife, Lillian, who would remain as the majority shareholder until her own death in 1971. It was thought that the position of club chairman would remain in the Gibson family, especially after James Gibson had appointed his son Alan to the board in 1948. However, Alan turned the job down in order to care for his ailing wife, Aileen, and it was former United player Harold Hardman who eventually got the job.

During Hardman's time as chairman, he experienced both extreme highs and extreme lows in the history of the club; the team won the First Division four times and the FA Cup once between 1951 and 1965, but also suffered possibly the greatest tragedy in the history of football, the Munich air disaster.

It was Hardman that was partially responsible for United first entering into European competition. The European Cup was established in 1955, and Chelsea were invited to enter the 1955–56 tournament as England's representatives before the Football League vetoed their entry. Manchester United won the First Division that season, and were invited to enter the following season's European Cup. The Football League were again prepared to veto the entry, only for Hardman and Matt Busby to receive permission from the Football Association's secretary, Stanley Rous, who would later become President of FIFA.

He later bore witness to the club's 10–1 win over Anderlecht in 1956, a result that remains the club's record European win, but he was fortunate to have not been involved in the Munich air disaster, having stayed in Manchester while the team travelled to Belgrade. However, Hardman would also miss out on the 1968 European Cup Final win, as he died in 1965.

Louis Edwards

Louis Edwards was voted onto the Manchester United board in February 1958, in the wake of the Munich air disaster, as a replacement for the late George Whitaker, who had died a few days before Munich. Edwards himself would have been on the plane with the team, but it was deemed inappropriate as he had not been voted onto the board yet – his replacement on the plane, Willie Satinoff, was killed in the accident. In the days following the accident, Edwards was elected to the board by a unanimous vote.

Died 26 February 1980

Martin Edwards

Had been elected to board of directors in March 1970. Took over as chairman on 22 March 1980

3 February 1984: Negotiated £10m sale of club to Robert Maxwell, but deal fell through

18 August 1989: Announcement made to Stock Exchange about £20m sale of club to Michael Knighton. Knighton would buy Edwards' shares for £10m, and had promised further cash injection of £10m, plus improvement of facilities at Old Trafford. Deal, which would have been the biggest in football history at the time, eventually fell through.

Malcolm Glazer

Main article: Glazer ownership of Manchester United

Ownership