Manchester United F.C. In July 2012, Manchester United was ranked first by "Forbes" magazine in its list of the ten most valuable sports team brands, valuing the Manchester United brand at $2.23 billion. The club is ranked third in the Deloitte Football Money League (behind Real Madrid and Barcelona). In January 2013, the club became the first sports team in the world to be valued at $3 billion. Forbes Magazine valued the club at $3.3 billion – $1.2 billion higher than the next most valuable sports team. They were overtaken by Real Madrid for the next four years, but Manchester United returned to
Glazer ownership of Manchester United 28 June said that Red Football's shareholding had reached 98% (259,950,194 shares), prompting a squeeze out of the remaining shareholders. The final valuation of the club was almost £790 million (approximately $1.5 billion at the exchange rate at the time). As a result of the Glazer takeover, a small group of disgruntled Manchester United supporters created a new club called F.C. United of Manchester. This so-called "phoenix club" was accepted into the North West Counties Football League second division, six promotions away from The Football League, and secured promotion in each of its first three seasons, twice as league champions.