AS multi-million pound takeovers are all the rage in Manchester at the moment we thought we’d bring you the story of a former suitor of the second biggest team in they city, as today in 1998 United confirmed they had accepted a bid from BSkyB to buy the club.

Ten years ago the notion that Premier League sides would be the latest playthings of the international billionaire boys club set was as out there as Newcastle United employing a sensible managerial policy. Being the biggest club in the country Manchester United had always been seen as an attractive acquisition, with UFO-nutter Michael Knighton coming close to a takeover in 1989 for the knockdown price of £20m.

Showing how much the game had changed in the following decade, BSkyB had agreed on a price of £623.4m for the club as Rupert Murdoch saw this as the next piece in his plan to dominate football broadcasting in England.

Murdoch’s price was around £50m more than the going price and the bid was quickly accepted by Martin Edwards and his cronies, much to the disdain of fans, football authorities and also the government. New Labour were still in their honeymoon period, as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Peter Mandelson promised the offer would be examined “very completely and extremely searchingly.”

Chairman of the all-party football group Joe Ashton pointed out that “What Murdoch is trying to do is sit on both sides of the table at once. He wants to sit on one side for Sky offering deals for showing matches, then sit there for Manchester United accepting them. That can’t be fair trading or be in the public interest.”

The BBC meanwhile began to panic that Match of the Day would be under threat, as Murdoch would prevent it showing highlights of United’s games. The case eventually went to the Monopoly and Mergers Commission and in April 1999 Stephen Byers, who had taken over as trade secretary from Peter Mandelson after some dodgy dealings in Notting Hill, proved to be the hero for the United fans as he blocked the sale. This was a brave move, as it risked the wrath of the Murdoch empire that has such an influence on any election in this country.

BSkyB would react by withdrawing thousands of pounds of funding for a football forum at the Labour Party conference in 1999 and Murdoch had to come up with a new strategy for world domination.

Amid the chaotic action behind the scenes that year at Old Trafford the club managed to block it all out and get on with securing the greatest season in the club’s history as they won that historic treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup.

See action from ‘that night in Barcelona’ below and check out what else was happening today here. We’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same, but if you can’t wait that long you can always order the new OTFD book, available here.

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