Record Domestic Doubles

Lore & Background

Manchester United are among the most successful football clubs in England, as well as one of the most successful football clubs in the world. Domestically, they have won a joint-record twenty top-flight league titles, thirteen FA Cups, six League Cups and a record twenty-one FA Community Shields. Additionally, in international football, they have won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League three times, and the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup once each.

In Their Own Story

Rain lashed against the roof of Wembley Stadium, drumming a rhythm that matched the tension inside the dressing room. It was May 1996; the air smelled of cut grass and deep heat. The manager walked through the line of players, his gaze scanning faces young enough to be his sons yet hardened by a long season's battles. 'They said we couldn't do it again,' he murmured, cutting through the hum of anticipation. 'They called the double a one-off miracle.' He paused before a young winger with wild hair and a determined glint in his eye. 'We are not here to be lucky. We are here to be United.' Outside, eighty thousand voices began to rise, a roar that would seal the second time the Red Devils had conquered both crown and cup.

Reader's Guide

Nicknamed the Red Devils, they were founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed their name to Manchester United in 1902. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester, the club moved to their current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910. Appointed as manager in 1945, Matt Busby built a team with an average age of just 22 – nicknamed the Busby Babes – that won successive league titles in the 1950s, and became the first English club to compete in the European Cup. Eight players were killed in the Munich air disaster, but Busby rebuilt the team around star players George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton (known as the United Trinity). They won two more league titles before becoming the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968. After Busby's retirement, Manchester United were unable to produce sustained success until the arrival of Alex Ferguson, who became the club's longest-serving and most successful manager, winning 38 trophies including 13 league titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League titles between 1986 and 2013. In the 1998–99 season, under Ferguson, the club became the first in the history of English football to achieve the continental treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. In winning the UEFA Europa League under José Mourinho in 2016–17, they became one of five clubs to have won the original three main UEFA club competitions (the Champions League, Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup).

Did You Know?

• Manchester United was the highest-earning football club in the world for 2016–17, with an annual revenue of €676.3 million.
• The club was taken private in 2005 after a purchase by American businessman Malcolm Glazer valued at almost £800 million.
• Manchester United have rivalries with Liverpool, Manchester City, Leeds United and Arsenal.