PLC United – From Clubs to Corporations

Abstract

In recent years, the relationship between Manchester United fans and their club has been put under the spotlight due to the contentious relationship between the fanbase and the club’s American owners, the Glazer family. However, the commercialisation of Manchester United and their ramping up of their associated brand accelerated massively during the 1990s, as a result of the coincident timing of the country’s glamour club returning to dominance during a period of ever-greater financial returns for top-flight success. As the undoubted commercial trailblazers in English football (and the first English club to be listed on the Stock Exchange), analysing their development during the 1990s is, arguably, the best way of understanding how and why top-flight football clubs operate the way they do and, in a knock-on effect on the league’s competitiveness, why the clubs below them can so easily fall away.

Citation

McMahon, C. and Templeton, P. (2024), "PLC United – From Clubs to Corporations", Contradictions in Fan Culture and Club Ownership in Contemporary English Football: The Game's Gone, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83549-023-520241002