Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

#trending: Elon Musk's 'joke' tweet on buying Manchester United sends fans into frenzy

SINGAPORE — Elon Musk's joking tweet about "buying Manchester United" (MUFC) on Wednesday morning (Aug 17) has taken social media by storm, drawing mixed responses from fans of the football club across the world.

Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday (Aug 17) that he was buying the football club Manchester United. Four hours later, he tweeted again to say that it was a "joke" and that he was "not buying any sports teams".

Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday (Aug 17) that he was buying the football club Manchester United. Four hours later, he tweeted again to say that it was a "joke" and that he was "not buying any sports teams".

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp
  • Elon Musk tweeted that he was buying football club Manchester United on Wednesday morning (Aug 17)
  • But he admitted in another tweet four hours later that it was a "long-running joke on Twitter" and that he is "not buying any sports teams"
  • The billionaire's two tweets took social media by storm and drew mixed responses from Man U fans across the world
  • Many netizens referenced his tweet about buying the football club to his failed Twitter bid
  • While some fans remain hopeful despite Musk admitting it was a "joke", other observant netizens noticed unusual activity around the football club's stocks

SINGAPORE — In the midst of his legal battle with Twitter, Elon Musk's tweet about "buying Manchester United" (MUFC) on Wednesday morning (Aug 17) has taken social media by storm, drawing mixed responses from fans across the world.

Though the billionaire later revealed that he had been joking, the original tweet had already gotten the internet's attention. In less than 10 hours, it has attracted more than 100,600 retweets, 89,600 comments, and 626,700 likes.

The tweet comes only four months after Musk famously made a US$44 billion (S$60.7 billion) deal to buy Twitter in April — and subsequently pulled out of it last month due to disputes over "bot account" data. The two parties are currently embroiled in a legal battle.

As for MUFC, as football fans would know, they have recently fallen on some hard times as well. The club's eight managerial changes in the past decade following Sir Alex Ferguson's 27-year-run are only the tip of the iceberg.

The club is currently at the bottom of the English Premier League after back-to-back defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club and Brentford Football Club — both teams they have historically triumphed against — in a nightmare start to the season.

And with the team set to play long-standing rival Liverpool Football Club next Tuesday, things are not looking up for them.

In response to Musk's MUFC tweet, many netizens referenced his failed Twitter bid: "Yep. Right after the Twitter deal goes through."

Others made joking allusions to the SpaceX founder's links with space technology and the stock market, with one comment on Reddit referring to the latest MUFC manager: "(Musk) probably realised that ETH is Erik ten Hag and not Ethereum and noped the f*** out of the deal".
And still others made barbs at the club's current owners, the American Glazer family. The Glazers have drawn the ire of many MUFC fans over the years, with hashtags such as #GlazersOut and #GlazersSellNow taking up prime real estate in online fan spaces.

The excitement Musk ignited amongst MUFC fans with his original tweet soon turned to outrage for some when he later clarified that it was a joke, as some had genuinely taken the potential change of ownership as a sign of hope for the football club's future.

However, it seems not all hope is lost. Fans are speculating that even if it is a joke, Musk's tweet will "bring the question about the club's ownership to (the) global limelight", highlighting it as a project for other potential investors.

Other more observant netizens have noticed some unusual activity around $MANU, or MUFC stocks. According to Twitter user "unusual_whales", two days prior to Elon's joke announcement, someone had bought a hundred times of the average monthly volume of $MANU stock in just one day.

On Sunday (Aug 14), Reddit user "SamRyburning" had also started a thread on the topic in a MUFC forum, leading commenters to wonder what "big news" could possibly be coming for the club.

This is not the first time Musk has been accused of market manipulation.

The Tesla CEO had previously been charged with fraud by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for tweeting that he had secured private funding for the electric car company when in fact he had not.

The SEC claimed that his tweet had misled investors and shareholders of the listed company.

Considering the fact that Musk just sold about US$6.9 billion worth of Tesla shares last week, some are still holding out the hope that it is not a joke. After all, many had thought the same of his Twitter bid.

Musk said in a tweet on Sunday (Aug 10) that he had sold the stock in preparation for a forced Twitter deal. Still, it's safe to say that anything can be expected from the richest person in the world.

Related topics

Trending viral Elon Musk Twitter Manchester United football

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.