Sojourn at the Theatre of Dreams

In fact, even if you aren't a football fan, such is the club's fame that a visit to Manchester today is incomplete without checking out Old Trafford, Manchester United's home.

No one could have imagined that in 90 years, a football club that nearly went broke would today be the richest. Enter Old Trafford, which trumpets itself as the Theatre of Dreams - with no pretensions to the thespian arts! - and you are overwhelmed by the sense of affluence and efficient management. The stadium, the varicoloured seats spelling out the words "Manchester United," the perennially green pitch, they all comprise today's equivalent to an imperial court with 11 princes presided over by one manager king.

All the players are millionaires. You just have to walk through the club's car park chock full of Mercedes, BMWs and Jaguars to be convinced of that fact.

The Hall of Fame in Man United's newly renovated museum.

Like all good fairy tales, Manchester United's beginnings were so bad their only future at one stage was oblivion.

The club began life as the Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Football Club in 1878; by 1902, it was so broke the players had pawned their best Sunday suits as there was no money for wages; and the club owed RM17,000, a huge sum in those days. Creditors had initiated bankruptcy proceedings and the club was virtually written off.

How it was saved at the last minute is the stuff of which legends are made.

It all began when club captain, Harry Stafford's St Bernard caught the eye of a young girl at a fund-raising bazaar. The girl asked daddy to buy her the dog - and daddy happened to be prominent businessman, John Henry Davies. When Davies approached Stafford, the captain made this audacious offer: buy the club and you get the dog!

Davies did, the club was saved and got a new name in the bargain: Manchester United.

The colours were also changed from green and gold to red and white. The club's star started to flicker when arch-rival Manchester City was found guilty of making illegal payments and was ordered to transfer four players, including famous Welsh winger Billy Meredith, to Manchester United.

United moved to Old Trafford in 1910 and won the Football Association (better known as FA) Cup in 1909. Promoted to the association's First Division in 1936, it returned to Second Division a mere two years later. In 1938 it went up into First Division again - and became known as the yo-yo club.

From the ruins of a stadium bombed during the World War II, greatness finally arrived in the form of Scottish Sergeant-Major Matt Busby. A half-back (the position is known as full-back nowadays) from Man United's fiercest rival, Liverpool, he was offered a coaching job at Liverpool's home in Anfield but became the manager at Old Trafford instead.

And so the foundations of the Theatre of Dreams was laid.

Busby, later knighted, cobbled together the Busby Babes, the first of three great teams which featured the finest footballers of each generation, like Duncan Edwards, Roger Bryne and Tommy Taylor. Long before Baywatch and page three pin-ups associated the word with "busty female," the Busby Babes were famous, making history by being the first English team to venture into the European Cup.

All the T-shirts you can possibly want.

Alas, their success led to their destruction. Most of the team perished in the infamous Munich aircrash in February 1958 on their way home after a European Cup quarter final against Red Star Belgrade. Busby survived and rebuilt the devastated team which went on to win the European Cup in 1968 with the likes of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best.

On the grounds at Old Trafford stands the statue of Sir Matt Busby who died in 1994. The club's Player Of The Year Award is a replica of this statue.

Manchester United has won four championships and two Doubles (Football League and Football Association cups) in the 90s. With that success came millions of pounds in boxoffice takings, television rights, club memorabilia and, last year, the renovated museum. The club's profits rose from RM27mil in 1993 to RM168mil in 1997.

A public listed company since 1991, Manchester United's annual revenue is nearly as much as the combined incomes of two of Europe's giant teams, Juventus and Internazionale of Italy.

The latest in the club's financial saga is international media baron Rupert Murdoch's offer to by it for RM3.6bil; the bid was thrown out by Britain's Monopolicies and Trade Commission after a public outcry from fans who claimed that the club would lose its "football soul" if Murdoch bought it.

Merchandise galore

At the world's largest football club official store, the Megastore, fans can eat, live and sleep in the red and white colours of their favourite team.

Branding is so complete you can drink Manchester United fizzy drinks, garbed in club merchandise ranging from T-shirts and shorts to socks and shoes, while reading the official magazines or watching the videos - before going to bed warmly wrapped beneath a Ryan Giggs (No. 11) duvet. All bought, of course, with a Man United credit card!

Everything is so red I thought the Communists had taken over, but this is unashamedly capitalistic. The No. 7 T-shirts worn by England midfielder David Beckham (famed as much for his football skills as his looks and relationship with the Posh one of Brit pop group Spice Girls) are jumping off the shelves so I thought I might as well buy one now that he is a father and may need my money for nappies. Alas, the dratted tee cost RM288!

The club's latest pride and money-spinner is the newly-renovated museum which was opened by football's most famous son, Pele, in April last year.

It took RM26mil and seven months to renovate the three storey museum. It acts as the assembly point for visitors and leads into the fabled stadium. Apart from traditional displays of trophies and historical and contemporary film footage and sound, it offers visitors computerised technology that allows them to try their hand at match commentary, guided by none other than the doyen of football commentators, Martin Tyler.

The ardent fan will think he has died and gone to heaven when he gets to Man-U-Net on the third floor. The 18 computer terminals plug into Man-U-Net's 27,000 page multimedia encyclopaedia with detailed information about every season, every first team (clubs have second and youth teams) game, every player and every goal scored. It includes details of 5,000 matches, 1,000 players and 9,000 goals with 1,800 photographs and two hours of video clips. You'd need 10 CD-Roms to hold all the data!

The behind-the-scenes tour allows visitors to see what goes on before and after a game. The players' dressing room is equipped for 22 players and has its own spa pools, baths and shower and massage areas.

"Here is the warm-up room where David Beckham prepares for his infamous free kicks," intones a guide. "There is his favourite spa."

Count the honours on the walls, sit in manager Alex Ferguson's seat in the dugout and follow in your heroes' footsteps down the world-famous steep tunnel and into the heart of the Theatre of Dreams.

Though the stands are empty, it's impossible not to feel the electricity the players experience before they run out onto the pitch to the deafening roar of the crowd. All the dreams and hopes of the club have been played out here and every blade of grass on the pitch could tell a story.

Speaking of which, a 55,000 gallon tank under the East Stand means the field is permanently green and lush. Miles of heating pipes defrost the pitch in winter and the system can be cranked up high enough to melt snow if necessary.

It's all a far cry from the day the players had to pawn their suits because they didn't get their wages, eh?

Manchester United fans harbouring a desire to visit Old Trafford will be delighted to know that Malaysia Airlines recently introduced direct flights to Manchester twice a week.