W. Bush and later by Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Manchester United Football Club, before Falcone grabbed hold of the shell in 2009.
FORBES: Phil Falcone's Harbinger Group Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of The Year
Occasionally the cables produce a juicy nugget, such as a report that the military junta in Myanmar wanted to buy Manchester United football club, or of a UN-brokered, American-supported peaceful coup planned by Zimbabwean exiles.
This made Manchester United the first English football club to list on an American exchange.
"Manchester United is the most profitable football club in the world, " read a club statement.
Hong Kong (CNN) -- In a first for Manchester United, the English professional football club today announced major sponsorship deals with not one, but two, popular Chinese companies -- each in a three-year deal.
CNN: Manchester United teams up with first two Chinese sponsors
"Manchester United has been transformed as a football club under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson, " according to Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
Calculations by Deloitte Touche Sport, a consultancy, show that Manchester United, the richest club in international football, now has larger revenues than any franchise in America's National Football League (the kind that is played with helmets and hands).
Real Madrid has overtaken Manchester United as the world's most valuable football club, according to business magazine Forbes.
But that achievement, for all its glory, was just the appetiser as, with the penalty shoot-out entering sudden death, Giggs stepped up to score the decisive spot kick and secure Manchester United's third triumph in European football's premier club competition.
Star forwards Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane are also wanted by Manchester United and Liverpool respectively, angering Tottenham club chairman Daniel Levy who has reported United to the Football Association over the Berbatov affair.
With Manchester United he has won three Premier League titles, two Football League Cups, the FA Cup, the World Club Championship, and the Champions League.
应用推荐