They compete in the Premier League , the top tier of English football. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester , the club moved to their current stadium, Old Trafford , in They won two more league titles before becoming the first English club to win the European Cup in 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 and Manchester United is one of the most widely supported football clubs in the world [ 11 ] [ 12 ] and have rivalries with Liverpool , Manchester City , Arsenal and Leeds United.
Following the league's dissolution after only one season, Newton Heath joined the newly formed Football Alliance , which ran for three seasons before being merged with The Football League. This resulted in the club starting the —93 season in the First Division , by which time it had become independent of the railway company and dropped the "LYR" from its name.
The following season began with victory in the first ever Charity Shield [ 21 ] and ended with the club's first FA Cup title. Mangnall was considered a significant influence behind the team's move to Old Trafford in , and Manchester United won the First Division for the second time in In , three years after the resumption of football following the First World War, the club was relegated to the Second Division, where it remained until regaining promotion in Relegated again in , Manchester United became a yo-yo club , achieving its all-time lowest position of 20th place in the Second Division in , under secretary-manager Scott Duncan , narrowly avoiding relegation to the Third Division.
Two years later, Duncan led the club to promotion before another relegation followed in , which led to his resignation in November of that year. Following the death of principal benefactor John Henry Davies in October , the club's finances deteriorated to the extent that Manchester United would likely have gone bankrupt had it not been for James W. In October , the impending resumption of football after the war led to the managerial appointment of Matt Busby , who demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers and training sessions.
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In , the club won the First Division, its first league title for 41 years. The following season, on the way home from a European Cup quarter-final victory against Red Star Belgrade , the aircraft carrying the Manchester United players, officials and journalists crashed while attempting to take off after refuelling in Munich, Germany.
