Manchester United

Full name: Manchester United Football Club
Previous Name: Newton Heath LYR FC
Nickname(s): Red Devils

Old Trafford, Manchester, England.
Capacity: 76,212

1878 - as Newton Heath LYR FC

Chairman: Joel & Auram Glazer
Manager: Sir Alex Ferguson

1907-08, 1910-11, 1951-52, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1964-65, 1966-67, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07.

1909, 1948, 1963, 1977, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004

1992, 2006

1968, 1999

European Cup Winners' Cup Winners: 1991
Intercontinental Cup/World Club Championship: 1999
European Super Cup: 1991
FA Charity/Community Shield: 1908, 1911, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1965*, 1967*, 1977*, 1983, 1990*, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007 (* joint holders)

Manchester United were founded in 1878 as Newton Heath, the works team for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway workers in the local area. It was in 1902 following a brush with insolvency that the club changed hands and became Manchester United Football Club.

It was under manager Matt Busby during the 1950s that Manchester United really came to the fore though as Scotsman Busby built a side based on players he had groomed through United's youth structure and fashioned a great side which became known as the "Busby Babes" due their precocious talents at young ages.

Tragedy was to befall the club and the Busby Babes before they truly reached their peak though as the players and staff were involved in a plane crash at Munich in 1958 resulting in eight players and fifteen other passengers losing their lives and many others seriously injured including talismanic manager Matt Busby.

The club recovered slowly under Busby's return following his recuperation and in the early 1960s began to piece together a side including players like Bobby Charlton (a survivor of the Munich crash), Denis Law (a Scottish goal machine striker) and the mercurial Northern Irishman George Best.

An FA Cup win in 1963 was followed by English league title wins in 1965 and 1967 and was capped off by winning the European Cup in 1968 at Wembley, with Manchester United becoming the first English club to get their hands on Europe's premier club trophy.

The side began to fall apart after this and following Busby's resignation in 1969 and several failed replacements the club found themselves relegated to the second division in 1974.

Despite several FA Cup wins over the next ten years and a quick promotion back to the First Division, United didn't find a natural successor to Busby's legend until 1986 when Alex Ferguson replaced Ron Atkinson as manager and began a new dynasty.

The impatient Manchester United board may have been close to sacking Ferguson a few times in his first few years but once he found his rhythm there was no stopping his sides with eight Premiership titles in ten years between 1993 and 2003 to show for their domestic dominance. In 1999, they also completed a treble of Premiership, FA Cup and a second European Cup win as Ferguson finally laid Matt Busby's ghost to rest.

Now owned by American billionaire Malcolm Glazer, Manchester United are arguably the world's best known sporting brand and undeniably world football's biggest club.