Just joking! Elon Musk backtracks from buying football club Manchester United
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The buzz he created on Tuesday saying he was buying Manchester United died down on Wednesday when Elon Musk said it was a joke!
The media reported on Wednesday that the Tesla Motors chief was joking about buying the English football club Manchester United Plc and that he isn’t in the market for any sports teams.
After earlier tweeting that he was purchasing the storied club in a thread joking about his political allegiances, the world’s richest person with a net worth of USD 270 billion walked back from the claim about four hours later, just after midnight New York time.
Musk is known to use Twitter to make jokes and troll the media, which follows his tweets closely. He has also run afoul of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, most infamously for tweets in 2018 about taking Tesla private. The reports said this led to securities fraud charges and a settlement that included appointing a “Twitter sitter” to approve Musk’s Tesla-related tweets.
Manchester United is, according to Forbes, valued at USD 4.6 billion. It won 13 Premier League titles but is last on the table after a disastrous start to the season under new coach Erik ten Hag. It lost its two opening games — including a 4-0 defeat to Brentford on the weekend.
Football fans have protested the performance of this storied club under the US’s ownership of the Glazer family. Manchester United won its last Premier League title under legendary coach Alex Ferguson in the 2012-13 season and has since fallen behind crosstown rival Manchester City, which won four of the past five titles.
The football club’s crisis, and some fans asking him to buy it, might have encouraged Musk to crack a joke.
While awaiting a court ruling in October on the failed USD 44 billion bid to buy microblogging platform Twitter, Tesla Motors CEO and SpaceX chief Elon Musk announced buying a leading football club, Manchester United, on Tuesday.
According to a 2021 report in The Daily Mirror, a British newspaper, the club’s owners, the Glazer family of the United States, could sell Manchester United for at least 4 billion pounds (USD 4.84 billion).
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United, or simply United, is a professional football club based in the Old Trafford area of Greater Manchester, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top division in the English football league system.
Some fans have urged Musk to buy Manchester United instead of Twitter.
“I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” he tweeted.
Musk is attempting to exit the USD 44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, which has taken him to court.
Manchester United is among the top and well-supported football clubs. They have been champions of England a record 20 times and have won the European Cup, the most prestigious club competition in the global game, three times.
However, not all seems well with it now. The football fans feel the Glazers have failed to attract top players. Their dissatisfaction intensified after the club finished sixth in the English Premier League last season, while crosstown rivals Manchester City won a second successive title.
In recent years, Manchester United fans have protested against the Glazers, who bought the club for 790 million pounds (USD 955.51 million) in 2005 because of the football team’s struggles on the pitch.
The anti-Glazer movement gained momentum last year after United attempted to form a breakaway European Super League.
