Manchester United is an English football club, based at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester. The club is one of the most successful clubs in England, having won the Football League fifteen times and the European Cup twice, and has had the highest average attendance in English football for the majority of the past fifty seasons.
The club was formed as Newton Heath (L & Y.R.) F.C. in 1878 as the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. After nearing bankuptcy in 1902, the club was taken over by J.H. Davies who changed its name to Manchester United. United appointed Sir Matt Busby as manager after the Second World War, and his then-unheard-of policy of producing most of the players through the club's youth team brought great success, with the club winning the Football League in 1956 and 1957. This success was halted by the Munich air disaster of 1958, in which eight of the club's players died. It was thought that the club might fold, but Once Busby had recovered from his injuries he built another great team which went on to win the football league in 1965 and 1967, and became the first English winners of the European Cup in 1968.
The club did not see great success again until the 1990s and early 2000s, when Sir Alex Ferguson guided them to eight league championships in eleven years. In 1999, Manchester United became the first team to win the Football League, the F.A. Cup and the European Cup in the same season — a record that has still not been equalled. The club had been run as a Public Limited Company since 1991, and a takeover was a real possiblility. An attempted takeover by Rupert Murdoch had been blocked by the British Government in 1999, but in 2005 Malcolm Glazer completed a hostile takeover of the club, despite considerable protests from many of United's supporters.
On May 12, 2005, the United States businessman Malcolm Glazer acquired a controlling interest in the club in a takeover valuing it at approximately £800 million ($1.47 billion). On May 16, Glazer increased his share to the 75% necessary to delist the club from the Stock Exchange, taking it private again, and announced his intention to do so within 20 days. On 7 June he appointed his sons Joel, Avram, and Bryan as non-executive directors, at the same time that Sir Roy Gardner resigned the chairmanship, and two other non-executive directors resigned.
The club is also known as "Man United" or simply "United"; the nickname "Man U", considered derogatory by some fans, is frequently used by the press and fans of rival clubs. Manchester United is unusual in that it is not based in the City of Manchester itself, but in the borough of Trafford, between the cities of Salford and Manchester.