February 7 – Manchester United vs the Damn Yankees

SUCCESSFUL, rich, hated by everyone but their own fans and full of overpaid pretty-boys. It’s was only going to be a matter of time until the ying of Manchester United met their yang in the New York Yankees. It was today in 2001 that United tried to emulate the Beatles and crack America, as they announced a joint-marketing deal with America’s most iconic sporting franchise, the Yankees.

Back in 2001 Manchester United were still the richest football club in the world, as they were still milking the off-the-pitch profits that David Beckham bought to the side and saw the link-up as being the way to convert the American masses into the ways of soccer-ball. The deal was the largest ever joint-marketing link-up in the whole of sport and would see each other share market information, develop sponsorship and joint promotional programs and sell each other’s merchandise in club shops.

The deal faced all kinds of cynics right from the word go. Many thought that by broadening their horizons United were eyeing up a breakaway league and paying scant regard to tradition. But when Peter Kenyon, a man who is surely loved only by his mother, is involved people will always be upset. Looking like he had no clue what was going on, Bobby Charlton was in Manhattan to defend the partnership. “We are not in the process of selling our souls to another sport, this is to make friends and grow the sport,” he rattled on as if trying to convince himself as much as he was the public.

At the time of this move people were thinking that this was the best way for Premier League clubs to extend their presence on the other side of the big pond, but it never really caught on. Yankee-fever didn’t take over at Old Trafford and although we don’t make it over there every week, we’re pretty sure that the Bronx isn’t full of United shirts, particularly once Beckham left for Madrid in 2003.

When the Americans want something though, they’ll take it. There’s no need for marketing partnerships when they can just roll in and take over the place, as George W. proved in Iraq. The Glazer’s bought the club in 2005 and since then Villa, Liverpool and Derby have all succumbed to US investors with varying degrees of success in the mega-bucks post-Abramovich era.

As we at OTFD reminisce about days gone-by where the driving force behind football was the love of the shirt and not how to pay off multi-million dollar interest payments, take a look at few classic United goals and come back tomorrow for one of football’s greatest ever headlines.