The confirmation that Mr Rupert Murdoch plans to add Manchester United to his substantial portfolio of media, entertainment and sports interests has been greeted with understandable suspicion in many quarters and outright hostility in others. For a reported £575 million, BSkyB satellite television group hopes to bring the famous English football club into the Murdoch fold, in the process opening up a range of opportunities for other Murdoch companies and triggering an equal degree of fear in their competitors.
The development, however, should come as no great surprise. The Australian tycoon has long believed that sport can be used as a "battering ram" to break down resistance to his vision of a subscriber-based television service. However, BSkyB is going one step further by seeking to gain control, not only of soccer coverage, but of one of the leading forces in that game. It is a strategy Murdoch has already employed in the US where his companies are involved in several sports ventures. This move has set alarm bells ringing in political, commercial and sporting quarters.
The reasons for the bid are many and varied and have little to do with the love of soccer. Manchester United is a formidable brand, recognised throughout the world. Since it went public in 1991 it has made great strides in exploiting its domestic and international popularity, realising big profits through more vigorous merchandising, but it is generally accepted to have the potential to deliver even better returns. BSkyB, along with other possible bidders, will be well aware of this fact.
It is the club's weight of influence in the English Premiership, and in any future European superleague, which will be most attractive to Mr Murdoch. At the moment BSkyB controls live coverage of the Premiership - soon to be challenged in the British courts - but that contract runs out in 2001. By controlling the Premiership's most popular club, BSkyB will be in an interesting position when the negotiations start. And if the Premiership clubs reject another collective deal in favour of individual bargaining, then BSkyB will be in a win-win situation, as it is unlikely to sell the club's valuable television rights to any company other than itself. The matter of pay-per-view television rights is another development dear to Mr Murdoch's heart.
What's in it for Manchester United? £575 million for a club which was valued at £46.8 million when it was floated in 1991 is not bad business for its shareholders (including the chairman Mr Martin Edwards, who could receive £80 million for his 14% stake). And that is what the club has become, a thriving business. The public face may be that of legends such as director Bobby Charlton, but behind the scenes, hard-headed financial decisions aimed at increasing profits now guide the club's fortunes. In this, the club is no different from the rest of soccer's elite; it is just the best known, the most widely supported and the most profitable.
For the dedicated fan there is little to do but watch from the sidelines as the big game unfolds. The politicians may huff and puff about the rights of the supporters, about the dangers to competition and fair trade, but Mr Murdoch's calculated and cynical seduction of the beautiful game has a grim inevitability about it.