Business of Sport Daire Whelan

Remember when £20 million seemed like a lot of money?

Oh, how times have changed, and changed so quickly. It's time to reach for the pipe and the slippers and make a booking for the retirement home when you read that just 15 years ago this week, Manchester United Football Club was apparently sold for £20 million to businessman Michael Knighton in what was then the biggest takeover deal in the history of British football.

Yes, that's right, just 15 years ago one could have bought "the world's biggest club" for only £20 million. The fact it was Michael Knighton, and the deal actually fell through, adds even more comedy to the mix.

£20 million? Wouldn't get you a Didier Drogba these days. It would just about buy you a Duffer with a little spare change to buy him a house. It definitely wouldn't buy you a sneaker contract for a high-school basketballer but maybe would be enough for a house in Dalkey (with a garden!) and a little something to furnish it to make sure it's in House & Home.

£20 million? Nowadays it would put you on a par with basketball legend (!) Steve Nash on the Sunday Times Rich List, far, far behind David Beckham's estimated wealth of £65 million. And in Ireland, you'd just about be on a par with that whippersnapper Colin Farrell.

1989 was when the Guildford Four were released after 15 years of being wrongly imprisoned; 15 years later and we have the DUP and Sinn Féin prepared to come together as part of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

It was also the year of the Hillsborough disaster; move on to the 21st century and all-seater stadia have ushered in an era of football chic for the nouveaux riches to associate themselves with. And we all watched on our TV screens as the Berlin Wall came crashing down and the Cold War in Europe finally began to unravel.

These days, not only do we have a united Germany, we also have a single European currency and an expanded EU that will ultimately include 25 member states. Who'd have thought it?

While the then chairman of Manchester United, Martin Edwards, was announcing his "sad decision" to sell off his shares and hand control over to the Isle of Man businessman, Knighton was professing himself "a football enthusiast first and a businessman second".

It's hard to believe that someone with money to throw around would seek to pump it into a club first and foremost as a fan, eh? And even harder to believe that in 1989, Alex Ferguson was on the verge of losing his job after three unsuccessful seasons without even an FA Cup victory for solace.

Even harder again to fathom, the club was in dire need of a cash injection, with Old Trafford beginning to resemble the way it had been in 1941 after it was bombed by the Germans during the second World War and with a training ground at the Cliff that would have been smaller than the car-park at their spanking new facility at Carrington.

The squad was an ageing, stale one and Knighton promised to wave his magic wand and put a cool £10 million into all aspects of the club. "Manchester United is a legend. It is undoubtedly in my view the greatest football club in the world," gabbed Knighton.

The headlines 15 years ago this week spoke of the amazement and the wonder at the thoughts of someone spending £20 million on a football club. And to prove how daft he was, Knighton even juggled a football in a Man United strip before the Old Trafford crowd one Saturday afternoon (one wonders what Roy Keane would make of such antics if they were to occur today).

But then of course, fact took over from fantasy and the richest takeover deal in football history came to an abrupt end when Knighton's financial investors backed out of the deal. It seemed as if the bubble had firmly burst for Manchester United.

The club would only struggle from here on in and the axe would fall on Ferguson's head sooner rather than later ("Sure winning things with Aberdeen doesn't compare to managing Manchester United").

If only, sigh the ABUs in unison. If only. Two years later the club was floated on the stock exchange with a valuation of £18 million and 10 years after that Manchester United was the most successful stock market-listed football club in the world, making a pre-tax profit of nearly £22 million.

Just 15 years ago, £20 million was setting takeover records in the football world. In the age of modern sport in the 21st century, it barely raises an eyelid when a player costs that much.

Those days seemed more innocent and wide-eyed somehow and we were all along for the roller-coaster ride. 1989 was just a year after the world was shocked to its bones when Ben Johnson tested positive after winning gold in the 100 metres final in Seoul.

We're in the middle of another Olympics this time around and the positive drug tests show no sign of abating, our cynicism has grown and we've become inured to the role that big money plays in sport.

We probably won't even be too concerned if another takeover of Manchester United results in £1 billion being put on the line. Sure it seems like only yesterday when £20 million would get you a football club . . .

PS: If you're curious as to what happened to Knighton after his audacious takeover attempt, he went on to buy Carlisle United, a club which sank all the way to the very bottom of the Football League,and then out of it. A tale of two clubs if ever there was one.

Also this week

So Beckham is losing his touch is he? Goldenballs who was said to be losing his golden touch after Euro 2004 has just signed another year-long deal with Vodafone valued at a cool £1.5m.

Olympic sponsors are making sure their products - and only theirs - are getting into Olympic areas.

A journalist was evicted from the media centre for drinking water with the "wrong" label on the bottle while in an even more bizarre story, another reporter at the shooting complex was told he could not bring in the sandwiches or the two bananas he had brought with him.

Eventually officials ceded some ground to the food but only after the "Geest" labels were removed. "They are not official sponsors," the journalist was told.

Last week, it was announced that Irish stablestaff were to get a fair deal with agreement reached between the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association and the Irish Stablestaff Association.

Agreement was reached on minimum rates of pay, working hours, pensions and grievance procedures. Expect more on this issue in future columns and on what it means for Irish stable staff.

Email bizofsport@eircom.net

Stock Watch

13.6p - Man Utd's share price at the end of its first day of trading on the stock exchange in 1991.

245p - The club's current share price.

Go Figure

£10m - Robert Maxwell's bid offer to the then chairman Martin Edwards for Manchester United in 1984.

Listento Lombardi

"The harder you work, the harder it is to lose."