[no audible dialogue]
[crowd cheering]
It was about the fight.
-[crowd roars] -[whistle blows]
Your studs are your best friend.
It's like a tug of war.
[commentator] Parlour.
[Ray Parlour] You can see the tension.
Not just on the pitch, on the side of the pitch as well.
[crowd cheering]
Arsene Wenger brought something different,
and I think that Sir Alex
felt threatened a little bit.
Being a United fan at that time was just fantastic.
It was just about focusing on the game
and not about all the shit that was going on off the pitch.
The media tycoon Rupert Murdoch
wants to buy Britain's biggest football club, Manchester United.
Rupert Murdoch needs Manchester United.
Manchester United do not need Rupert Murdoch.
We weren't just gonna have some corporate carpetbagger
come in and take the club over.
It's like, "Okay. All right. You've got a fight on your hands then."
The Football Association has approved controversial plans
to set up a new super league.
I would love it if we beat them. Love it.
When the seagulls follow the trawler, they think sardines will be thrown.
The most expensive player in the history of British football...
To use a phrase "arms race" would be appropriate.
[Les Ferdinand] Footballers became sort of like rock stars overnight.
[crowd roars]
[Paul Merson] I've got a choice in life now.
I either go back to the booze
and the gambling and the drugs
or I go the other way.
It's like a religion. It's something to believe in.
[sax solo from "Baker Street"]
[person] The Premier League, when it first started,
it was slightly uncertain about what it had to sell.
And within five years, they realized they had a product
that was worth a lot of money.
[commentator] Goes to Warhurst...
-Oh! -[crowd cheering]
Giggs shoots. Goal! That has settled it!
Gillespie!
[reporter] The Premier League chairmen met
to strike a new four-year deal with Sky
worth more than ú600 million.
Since we came along and put the Premier League on television
and started paying a lot of money for it,
we have seen a total transformation of British soccer.
[narrator] In 1996, Rupert Murdoch's Sky agreed to double its offer
to secure the TV rights for the Premier League
and were now paying almost ú3 million per match.
Arsenal's David Dein was one of the original architects of the breakaway league,
but so far, his team had failed to mount a serious challenge.
Now with more TV money being offered than ever,
club bosses like Dein were under pressure to succeed.
I had a knowledge and feel
that the game was going more international
and that we had to move with the times.
[Arsene Wenger speaking Japanese]
-Thank you very much. -[crowd applauding]
And when I saw Arsene, I realized that here was one for the future.
[narrator] Arsene Wenger was an unknown figure in the UK,
but had enjoyed success as a manager with French club Monaco.
After a move to Japan, he was gaining a reputation
as something of a football visionary.
[Dein] We were going to introduce Arsene,
and I went to the training ground that morning, and I said,
"Lads, we're gonna introduce our new manager today."
And so their eyes opened, and I said, "Yeah, it's Arsene Wenger."
And Ray Parlour said, "Who the fuck's that?" [chuckles]
The look around the room was, "Arsene Wenger?"
We'd never heard of Arsene Wenger.
We was always expecting a British manager.
We was like, "Wow. What? Don't even know him.
Don't even know him."
[chattering]
[scattered applause]
Good afternoon.
I know that you had to write a lot about me
without knowing me
or to speak about me without knowing me.
That's why I've made such a long trip to come and answer all your questions.
He's an unusual guy. He speaks about five languages,
had a degree in economics, he understands medicine.
I thought, "This is not your average footballer who's just become a manager.
This guy's a lot more than that."
[reporter] You've certainly stuck your neck out for this man.
Undoubtedly, but we focused our target on Arsene Wenger.
Last one? Okay, last one. Really last one.
[Dein] And we've now managed to get him here.
[photographer] Arsene, this way, please. Just straight into this lens. Thank you.
Have you got it? Okay, ready?
And so to what's been the school for scandal in recent seasons,
comes the scholar, Arsene Wenger--
What's he got? A master's degree? Master's degree.
I think they were just fascinated.
I mean, Arsene was a totally unknown quantity.
Okay.
Hi. How are you? Hello. Good to see you.
You well? You tired? Jet lag.
No, it's okay.
We had a new train on the track
and we wanted to know how fast it was gonna go.
[Parlour] When he first come in and you looked at him,
he looked like a bit of a school teacher.
But he had so much focus.
That training ground was so important to him,
and the training methods were a different class.
One goes outside. One goes outside.
Yes! Yes!
[Merson] It was football.
It was all on the clock. It was-- Wow.
I could see my abs.
Every club in those days had a drinking culture.
And we were probably top of the league at the time.
[laughs]
We had a Tuesday club. It was well known everywhere.
Tuesday, we went out. It was like bang, we'd be in London.
We'd be out all day, all night, and it got around all the other clubs.
"Oh, Arsenal are out. They're out every Tuesday."
We'd put a card behind the bar and just let it roll.
And it would literally be till 6:00, 7:00 in the morning.
Say hello to the milkman. That's if you did go home.
We weren't in Wednesday, so go out again.
Wenger took drinks straight out of the bar. Straight out.
The players' lounge was stripped.
See you later. No drink.
-[phone rings] -Hello?
Hi, Martin.
[Martin Keown] He felt that alcohol was poison,
that you were poisoning your body with alcohol.
And he wanted us to visualise drinking water,
to see it flushing through your body and cleansing all your muscles.
We'd have chicken, we'd have steak, potatoes, raw vegetables.
And he'd literally go around saying, "Chew to win."
And you had to chew your food until it was like soup in your mouth.
He was so far ahead of his time.
Now I was going into games feeling like I was superhuman.
[commentator] A new era has begun at Arsenal.
Today, Frenchman Arsene Wenger takes charge of his first game in England.
We'd play eight v eight. It would be one touch or two touch.
Pass and move. Pass and move.
Then when you got on the pitch on a Saturday,
you passed and you moved.
[commentator] Anything appears possible for the new boss Arsene Wenger,
even the possibility of a championship bid.
[narrator] Under Wenger, it was no longer "Boring, boring Arsenal".
As his first season in England drew to a close,
Wenger's style of football was winning over the fans.
Arsene Wenger brought a kind of continental sophistication
into English football in the way the players trained,
in the way they looked after themselves, diet, everything.
And I think that's partly what got Ferguson annoyed.
[narrator] When Ferguson complained
that United faced too many games in quick succession,
Wenger dared to disagree.
They say Arsene Wenger's had a swipe
at Manchester United again today.
He's got plenty to say.
He should maybe concentrate on Ian Wright's tackles maybe
rather than talk about Manchester United.
He's a fighter. I mean, there's two mentalities: fighter and victim.
And most people sway between fighter and victim.
Very few are completely fighter or completely victim.
Alex was one of those people that was probably locked into fighter mentality.
Arsene Wenger's been in Japan for a year.
He doesn't know anything about English football.
He's unaware of the demands of our game,
and to play four games in eight days is crazy.
He's putting his finger on the pulse and saying,
"Don't mess with Manchester United."
And his players would have loved that.
He's come from Japan, and he's entered English football
and he's now telling everybody in England how to organize their football.
I think he should keep his mouth shut. Firmly shut.
That interview there was Sir Alex at his absolute peak,
where the eyes are ferocious.
He's sending a message there, "Are you gonna take me on?"
And Arsene Wenger did take us on.
[reporter] Can you come across this way for us?
[White] There was a real, genuine animus there.
But also Ferguson was a very sophisticated user of the media,
and it was a good way of deflecting attention away from a bad performance.
He would give them another headline,
and it was a headline he was in control of. And Wenger was much the same.
These were two very sophisticated users of the media clashing horns.
They felt attacked,
but it was not for me a particular attack against Man United.
It was more a fight for the regularity of the competition.
It was... Yeah, an intense rivalry.
It's great television, isn't it? [laughs]
Arsenal have got to put up or shut up today.
If they are serious title challengers,
they've got to prove it here, simple as that.
[narrator] When the two teams met at Highbury,
United were still dominating in the league.
But Wenger had been busy strengthening his squad,
landing prodigious talents for bargain prices
from his contacts in Europe,
players that few other clubs had even heard of.
He knew every single player around Europe at that time.
Already had Dennis Bergkamp.
[crowd cheering]
He brought in Vieira, Overmars, Petit, Nicolas Anelka.
When I look in that dressing room,
there was nobody else I'd rather have gone in there with.
I knew that we could upset the apple cart here.
[commentator] Welcome to Highbury
for one of the Premier League matches of the season.
It's Arsenal against Manchester United.
[Ferguson] For us, nobody comes to your door and hands you medals, by the way.
You've got to go outside your door and work for it.
Sir Alex was a really social manager.
So before every single match that we played away,
he'd go and sit and have a coffee with them
in the manager's office.
Apart from against Arsenal away at Highbury.
He'd be sat in our changing room for the whole hour build-up.
You weren't gonna sit with him. He wasn't having it.
And this is where this run-in with Arsenal kind of begins.
[whistle blows]
[crowd cheering]
That rivalry in that particular time wasn't just about the quality,
it was about the fight.
Who's gonna be up for it on the day?
Who's gonna want to win?
[Parlour] Yeah, proper tackles flying in.
I love to see that again. I get a buzz now watching that.
It wasn't just one place on the pitch, it was 11 players against 11 players,
and everyone had their own battle.
[Neville] Players were mirrors of their manager on the pitch.
They had to win. It was win or nothing.
[commentator] Here's Anelka, looking to work a shooting opportunity.
Does well, and Nicolas Anelka
with his first ever goal for Arsenal!
And what a time to score it.
Vieira, yes! 2-0!
[Neville] Arsene Wenger was somebody who, at the time,
was looking to take Sir Alex off the top spot,
and Sir Alex knew they had a good team,
and he knew full well that he had to win that battle.
[commentator] Gary Neville, drifting behind Grimandi,
has done and tarnished Arsenal.
Nice little flick by Giggs, and it's Sheringham again!
Oh, ho! 2-2! Terrific strike from Sheringham.
[Keown] If you look back to that day, it was like a tug of war,
that we had to keep pulling on that rope to get to where we wanted.
[commentator] And the header is in by David Platt!
And Arsenal go 3-2 ahead!
-[whistle blows] -[crowd roars]
And Manchester United are beaten, and Arsenal cut the gap.
[Wenger] I don't think that it will be as easy as everybody thinks for Man United.
I think, as well, it shows the spirit of the team
and the strong spirit of the players,
of all these experienced players.
And once again, a typical Arsenal spirit made the difference.
[Keown] Suddenly, there was this clever Frenchman coming along
who wanted to put his team in a position
where they could take away everything that United were owning at that point.
[narrator] Wenger's sourcing of continental players
was starting to yield results,
and Arsenal were closing in on the reigning champions.
Elsewhere, United's old foes, Blackburn Rovers,
who'd won the Premier League two years earlier,
were seeing their talent going in the wrong direction.
[reporter 1] It was the farewell that everyone in Blackburn had feared.
Alan Shearer left the club's training ground for the final time this morning.
[reporter 2] Hiya, Alan. Any chance for a quick word? Hello.
I've got no comment to make at this stage.
I'll make it later on.
You must be pleased, though.
Delighted. Thank you.
Thank you.
[Shearer] Newcastle were prepared to make me
the world's most expensive footballer.
It was a tough decision at the time,
but it was without doubt the right one.
I had to stop me van. I nearly crashed. I was shocked. Totally shocked.
I can't believe it now. It's like everything's a dream, you know?
It is unbelievable that's he's gone.
I was absolutely gutted when Alan went.
It was like
there were pieces falling out of the jigsaw,
and that there was no way of putting them back
'cause nothing would ever fit the way that the team fit at that time.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] Blackburn's success had been built on the personal wealth
of local steel magnate Jack Walker.
Jack Walker had spent big, but it was temporary. It wasn't lasting.
And to be a lasting, sustainable business,
you had to be on the level of Manchester United or Arsenal or Liverpool.
And just, you know, big business.
[narrator] In their bid to remain championship contenders,
Blackburn were unable to hold on to their star players
or their title-winning manager.
[reporter] Six weeks after guiding Blackburn to the championship,
Kenny Dalglish has taken a surprise move upstairs.
His move into the background gives Ray Harford
the return to management he's wanted.
The club didn't have the experience to know how to handle that success.
I remember chairman Robert Coar saying that we'd won the league a year too early.
He was talking about it from a structural point of view and a planning point of view.
The normal way would be you refresh your squad where you can.
But Jack was a great believer in loyalty,
and I think he thought these guys have won the Premier League,
and I want to stick with them.
[commentator] That was a poor clearance. Straight to Chris Powell.
And there's his namesake Daryl, and here's Chris Powell
in the first minute and the ball lobbed in.
Did it cross the line? It has now surely!
It's Blackburn 0, Derby County 1
in the very first minute of the match.
It was frustrating to see it falling apart, and it fell apart really quickly.
[commentator] He's still in there, tees it up here.
Goal number two!
Blackburn's disastrous start to the season continues.
Since Alan Shearer left, it's just pathetic from everybody.
[reporter 1] Rovers lie bottom of the Premiership
just 19 months after winning the title.
Time must surely be running out for Ray Harford.
[reporter 2] So there's no news to be made? Nope.
Harford's safe?
There's no news to be made.
[reporter 1] A friendly handshake with chairman Robert Coar
ends Ray Harford's reign at Blackburn Rovers.
We identified Sven as the manager that we'd like to come and manage for us.
He said that he'd like to come and join us.
[reporter] Sven-Goran Eriksson will fill the manager's chair at Blackburn
even if he couldn't make it to his own introduction.
I'm very sorry about that. Thank you.
It was a bizarre situation, that.
To announce a manager and he not turn up.
Blackburn Rovers chairman Robert Coar says reports in Italy
that Sven-Goran Eriksson now doesn't want to come to Ewood Park are rubbish.
Yeah. His assistant had been to the training ground and watched us train
and said, "Sven, don't take this job. They're not good enough."
[Walker] We have now received it officially from him
that he won't be coming to Blackburn Rovers.
Sven's agent came to see me,
and he said Sven won't be coming to you in the summer.
Sorry, but he doesn't want to come.
[stadium announcer speaking, indistinct]
[Wilcox] We were never gonna be as big as Man United.
They invested properly.
They had the consistent leadership, and we didn't.
[narrator] By 1998, Blackburn's rivalry with Manchester United was a distant memory.
A new feud had now gripped the nation's fans and media,
one that would define a new era in the Premier League.
[commentator] What a start to the weekend here on Sky Sports.
It's Old Trafford, Manchester United against Arsenal.
[narrator] Despite Arsenal's resurgence, Old Trafford was a fortress,
one that they'd been unable to breach
since the formation of the Premier League.
The mind games haven't started just yet, but of course there is time.
If Arsenal win here today, then it really could all go off.
The press loved the Arsenal-United rivalry.
The fire was there, but they were chucking petrol on it all the time.
The drama would be built up by the papers.
What they did was made football the national soap opera.
[commentator] Sir Alex Ferguson has been saying,
"It's in our own hands".
And a look at the league table would certainly confirm that.
[narrator] United were above Arsenal in the table,
but a win at Old Trafford would mean
Wenger could regain momentum in the title race.
[reporter] Arsenal haven't scored here in the Premiership.
That's a nice record to keep going, isn't it?
A good record, aye.
All the very best today. Thank you.
I used to say to Overmars before the game,
"Look, Gary Neville hasn't slept last night."
Overmars was absolutely on fire.
There wasn't a player on the planet who could live with him that day.
[commentator] Looking to pick up Overmars.
And Schmeichel has come, but Overmars has beaten him!
And Overmars just puts it a foot or so wide of that far post.
-Yeah, this is it here. -[commentator] This time... Anelka off.
Look at that first touch into his stride.
Wasn't gonna miss that one.
-[whistle blows] -[commentator] There it is now, though.
What a win for Arsenal!
And the title race that looked over
is now wide open
because Manchester United lead Arsenal now by only six points.
But Arsenal still have those three games in hand.
[Keown] I do remember sitting on the bus thinking, "Wow, what a great day that was."
It felt like it was a change of power.
You're gonna win fuck all!
Fuck all!
Well, Arsenal, now they're under pressure, you see.
They've coasted along behind everyone.
Now they've come with a run.
And obviously, they're in that position now
that every mistake they make will cost them.
[reporter] They do have to win the games in hand.
[Ferguson] Have to win the games in hand, and will find out how difficult it is.
Okay. Leave it at that. Thanks, Alex.
Sir Alex Ferguson is saying, "Oh, well, I don't think they'll be able to do it.
They're gonna slip up. There'll be a mistake.
They haven't necessarily got the experience."
That was just adding fuel to us. That was just making us feel,
"Thanks, Sir Alex. That's another thing to motivate us."
I think of that Arsenal team in '98 to this day,
was the best domestic football team that I ever played against.
It had everything. The best of the sort of English spirit with that back four
with David Seaman in goal,
aligned with Petit, Vieira, Anelka, Overmars.
Absolutely sensational team.
[narrator] After an impressive winning streak of nine games,
Arsenal were poised to win their first Premier League title
with three matches still left to play.
[commentator] Bould on to Adams.
This would be a fairy story!
Can there be a sweeter moment?
Tony Adams clinches Arsenal's championship.
[crowd roars]
Arsenal champions in England.
Nobody says "Arsene who?" now.
David Dein knew what he could do,
and he's done it in 18 months from start to finish.
[reporter] He's done a tremendous job, hasn't he?
I think so, and there's no doubt.
I mean, in the end, the results talk for themselves,
and well, nobody really knew who he was.
But perhaps we knew a little bit more.
[narrator] Arsenal confirmed their dominance by going on to win the FA Cup,
securing the double.
When we won the league in '98, we won the double that year.
In fact, I think I've got a picture here. You can see it.
Let me show you that. I'm rather proud of that one.
That's from the balcony at Islington Town Hall.
[narrator] Arsenal were victorious on the pitch, but as a business,
Manchester United were still the dominant force in British football.
Over the past four years, their turnover had doubled.
Marketing the club had become a key priority.
[person] We were definitely ahead of the game in those days
in terms of all the extra income that we were bringing in
on the merchandising side,
whether it be magazines, videos, clothing or whatever.
[reporter] Fred the Red is the latest commercial development of a club
where the balance sheet is as impressive as the team sheet.
This is for the kiddies' market.
This is a sort of red devil, a genial character.
A bit like with Warner Brothers,
you see Mickey Mouse and Mr Blobby and all these various characters.
[narrator] More than 50% of Manchester United's revenue
now came from TV, merchandise and sponsorship.
[presenter] You can buy all manner of products from life insurance with Man U Life
to Champions Cola to wallpaper.
[narrator] They realized the value of their brand, and it was now going global.
[cheering]
Everyone's just Man U crazy.
[Edwards] We even started opening up shops or franchises abroad
to sell our merchandise in places like Singapore and things like that,
so we were into it, yeah.
We were really the pioneers
in terms of turning a football club into a thriving business.
The media tycoon Rupert Murdoch
wants to buy Britain's biggest football club, Manchester United.
The television company BSkyB, which is controlled by Mr Murdoch,
said today it was in discussions which may or may not lead to an offer being made.
[person] First time I met Rupert Murdoch,
I remember I had an opportunity to talk about strategy
and where the television business was going.
The fact that football was so vital to the future of any platform
made it obvious to look at what alternatives there were for us
to be in the football business itself,
and Manchester United was the best option.
It had an international brand,
it was a great team, it had great ownership.
And so you look at that and go, "That would be nice to have a piece of that."
Good evening. Bill Clinton on the verge of impeachment,
Russia on the verge of collapse,
but guess what was leading the news this week: football.
The massive coverage of Sky Television's ú623 million bid
to take over Manchester United reflected the position of football
in the nation's consciousness.
I was pretty unhappy about this. United were important to me.
I was working for Newsnight at the time,
and they said, uh, the editor said, "Can you do a film about it?"
The club's critics will no doubt say, "Typical Manchester United."
-Here's one of the most important meetings... -Oh, is this my piece?
in the whole of the club's history, and where is it held? Not at Old Trafford,
but almost 200 miles away at a bank here in the City of London.
As the value of their shares and mine soared,
this Manchester United fan learnt that the club directors
had spent most of this afternoon and this evening
locked away in a secret board meeting.
As day turned to night,
they were still thrashing things out
in their riverside suite.
And given the outcry their plans have caused back in Manchester,
no wonder the directors were being so secretive.
They want to win the league. We want to win the league.
They want to win the cup. We want to win the cup.
The most exciting aspect of this deal is that it forms, what I believe,
will prove to be one of the great partnerships in sport.
My concern was, was Manchester United as strong with BSkyB
as a backing or as owners that it was as independently?
And my answer to that was yes.
[reporter] Martin Edwards is reported to have sold his stake in the company
for a cool 80 million.
You're already a rich man.
So why do you need extra money, ú87 million?
I don't need extra money. It's nothing to do...
What's in it for BSkyB?
It's not a biscuit company you're buying, is it?
It's a football club, and there must be a logic to that.
Yeah, well, we think it's a natural combination.
We invest a great deal of money in sports today.
We invest a great deal of money in football today,
and we believe in the intrinsic value of Manchester United.
[Booth] The intensity and the amount of coverage it got
was beyond what I was expecting, I have to say.
Now that it's all out in the open, United fans,
both here in Manchester and around the world,
are busy speculating on what involvement with Rupert Murdoch might mean.
It's just all money. Each club is one big theme park now.
He's not a football person,
and it's all to do with control and power and money.
[reporter 1] But some fans are planning a protest.
[reporter 2] They chose a typical working man's club
to vent their anger at the men they believe
have taken football away from the typical football fan.
[reporter 3] Joining me now from Old Trafford, Andy Walsh of the supporter's club.
Rupert Murdoch needs Manchester United.
Manchester United do not need Rupert Murdoch.
[reporter 1] While the supporters claim they helped make
Manchester United one of the biggest clubs in the world.
But the charge tonight is that it's now in the control
of men who hold football dear to their wallets, not to their hearts.
[Walsh] If this deal goes through, we will be part
of News Corporation International.
We will be subject to the pressures that a large conglomerate
can bring to bear on its subsidiary companies.
Me dad's a United fan,
and I started going with him to games
when I was about five or six.
They'd be a part of Mr Murdoch's worldwide empire.
It became clear that their strategy was about dominating the TV market.
That they would be the broadcaster
and they would also start to control the content.
And then the argument then came out, "Well, what do they want?"
They don't want Monday Night to dominate 'cause if Monday Nightdominates,
that's not very good for the TV, is it?
We are quite concerned that Manchester United would lose their independence.
We weren't just gonna have some corporate carpetbagger come in and take the club over.
It's like, "Okay. All right. You've got a fight on your hands then."
We've called a public meeting next Tuesday evening
in The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
It's gonna cost us about ú6,000 to put that on.
We're calling for people to give money to us so the fans can have a chance to get...
On that back of that Newsnightprogramme,
I got a call from a guy who said that he had somebody
who might be interested in paying for The Bridgewater Hall.
Had seen the piece on the TV.
Couldn't tell me who it was.
But by that time, we needed to produce leaflets,
we needed to produce materials for furthering the campaign.
So I said to him, "Well, look, I don't know who you're in contact with,
but we need ten grand." So he said, "Leave it with me."
And then he phoned me back and said, "Okay, ten grand."
And he told me that the person who was willing to put the money up
was Roger Taylor, the drummer from Queen.
[Taylor] It's like the music business, really.
The fans are what make any big institution
like a rock band or an artist or a football club,
and I think it's just become such big business now.
Football fans aren't stupid.
Their football club matters more to them
than many other things in their life.
I was in a position to help.
It's not that much amount of money.
And I thought I would. Why not?
[reporter] About 1,000 fans attended a protest meeting
at The Bridgewater Hall to rally support against the takeover.
The fans believe the deal is being sprung upon them unfairly.
It's no good following the line of "let's wait and see."
It's now we've got to stop it, not five years down the line.
I remember that meeting. It was very passionate.
A lot of fans in those days loathed what Sky TV were doing.
They loathed the fact that you had to pay out
large amounts of money to watch your TV.
They loathed the fact that kick-off times
became dependent on when Sky said so.
The feeling was that football was being taken away
from the people who should be owning it.
He already had the newspapers backing him up.
Now he had the TV, and he was gonna get the club as well.
It was clear what the motive was,
and I didn't want my club
to end up as a tool
in a worldwide media operation
run by Rupert Murdoch.
Judging by some of the reactions today,
you would've thought Rupert Murdoch had lashed out with his feet,
kicked an opposing defender and put England out of the World Cup.
Rupert Murdoch has won bigger battles than this all around the world.
Well, that just spurred us on.
In fact, all he wants to do is buy England's biggest club,
Manchester United. There's been a...
[Walsh] Even the pomposity of that presenter there,
it was... It's just dismissive.
"What do you know, little people?
This is big business."
[narrator] As the fans rallied against Murdoch's takeover bid,
Alex Ferguson's side were focusing on just one thing--
taking revenge on Arsenal.
[commentator] Neville, back on for Barnsley. As Beckham gets the cross in...
And Dwight Yorke is there to get his second of the game!
[reporter] Will there still be a football club here regardless of what's gone on over here?
It's important to be a football club 'cause that's what this club's been built on,
the traditions of it.
It'll always be that way, I hope.
That season, they had to be better than they'd ever been before
to beat this magnificent Arsenal team.
[commentator] Here's Ray Parlour. Is this number five?
[Beckham] To see Arsenal do the double hurt us.
We wanted to try and top that.
[commentator] Has to be a Beckham special. Can he dip it?
Drops it in. Yes, it has! Beckham's back!
[Keown] I think in '99, in defending that title,
that we were a far better team and far more consistent.
From the goalkeeper to the subs that were coming on,
we had a squad of players that were all performing all at the right time.
[commentator] And Beasant does well yet again. But there's more to do.
-Oh, that's brilliant! -[Schmeichel] The stakes were so high.
We obviously feel that we have to win every game
to stay with them or stay ahead of them.
[commentator] Anelka's alone. Can he score
an individual goal? He's teasing the defenders!
And the goalkeeper, and he's back in scoring form.
Every little thing you did carried an impact.
[crowd groans]
Being a United fan at that time was just fantastic.
It was just part of the atmosphere, singing, bouncing, jumping around.
[commentator] Here goes Beckham... brilliant!
[crowd cheering]
[Walsh] It was just about focusing on the game
and not about all the shit that was going on off the pitch.
[Crick] We fans have no love for the current directors,
but the idea of Murdoch owning the club fills us with horror.
It's inevitable. We'd like to think it wasn't.
We all have a romantic view of soccer in this country. It's changed.
[reporter] This is a ball that's landed firmly at the feet
of a new trade and industry secretary, Peter Mandelson.
He's the man who'll have to refer the deal
to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in the first place.
Some people said it was unfair
that the Premier League had a television deal
with a company who owned one of the clubs involved.
And that was inherently unfair in terms of competition law and so on.
[narrator] In order to put political pressure on the government,
the fans needed to galvanize wider support for their grassroots campaign.
We had a team that were lobbying different football clubs
and trying to persuade football club executives
to say why this was bad for football.
We went and bought a block of shares,
and that meant that we were in shareholders meetings
and we couldn't be ignored anymore.
Where I think we underestimated
was the voracity of the shareholders.
The person who had one share, not the controlling shareholders,
but the average bloke out there and what he thought.
What they didn't realize was that football fans represent such a diverse part of society.
So, you had some of the best lawyers in the country against it.
Brilliant marketing people who were running companies in Soho
who were Mancs who wanted to get this stopped.
You had fantastic people like Andy Walsh organizing it all.
Michael Crick who knew exactly how to communicate it.
There were 30-odd-thousand small shareholders at United.
Then Michael said, "We need to find a way of getting letters out.
I just don't know how we're gonna do it."
So I said, "Well, we've got hundreds of people who would help."
So we set it up in the upstairs room of O'Brien's
where we used to have our meetings, and we just worked through the night.
People came and took envelopes and took letters and took them home.
Those activities bring people together.
Within a couple of days, we'd stuffed 30-odd-thousand envelopes
and every single shareholder got a letter.
Now this is inside the annual general meeting.
The fact that the pictures are so crooked suggests
that this was surreptitious filming on our part.
But we planned it very thoroughly for this meeting,
and we would work out the questions we were gonna ask
um, and distribute the questions amongst all the shareholders that we had there.
And we made sure not to sit together
'cause if we sat together, then we would just be dismissed as a bloc
and nobody would be asked from that part of the room.
We made sure that we sat in different parts of the room
so that it wasn't obvious that we were part of the campaign opposed to the bid.
[shareholder]
[applause]
Once they started having these meetings at the time of the BSkyB bid,
then we obviously were gonna use this opportunity to go along and ask questions.
This was all part of publicising the story.
Uh, you know, if you did this surreptitious filming
and then you took it along to television companies and said,
"Look, we've got secret filming from inside the AGM,"
of course they're gonna run it.
[spokesperson]
[Crick]
Oh, that's me.
[chairman]
[shareholders disagreeing]
[chairman]
[shareholders disagreeing]
[Crick]
[applause]
Quite strong stuff by me.
...or any other company.
I think we were all pretty sceptical that it would work,
but we all thought we had a duty to give it a go.
I sort of thought there was a 10, 20% chance of success.
[reporter] Mr Mandelson is one of the strategists
behind Labour's wooing of the Murdoch empire,
and as "Dome Secretary", he's well aware that BSkyB has put ú12 million
into his grand Millennium project.
Doesn't all this add up to a pretty terrible conflict of interests?
You know how lawyers never give you a percentage chance of winning?
They did in this one, and it was like 90 or 100% chance,
so our confidence level was high.
From a shareholder value point of view,
we think the game is gonna grow in popularity...
[Crick] And somebody at one point actually tested Mr Booth and said,
"Can you tell us the name of United's left back?"
And of course he hadn't got a clue. [laughs]
That's right, Dennis Irwin.
I didn't... It's seared into my consciousness.
Um... I had not gone to a game.
[Walsh] Booth was just sharp suits,
smooch his way through a press conference,
but didn't have a clue.
[interviewer] So it must have been about business.
It wasn't just about business. This was about Monday Night.
[commentator] It's Manchester United and Arsenal, both in stupendous form.
[reporter] Because of that win last season
and the fact that you've beaten them on the last four occasions,
do you feel you have the psychological advantage
going into this game?
I think at least we know we can do it.
In our minds, we know we can beat them.
[commentator] A colossal contest in the Premiership power game.
[reporter] I suppose it suits Arsenal.
Would you settle for that, Alex, tonight?
I don't think we would settle for a draw any time.
You're going for the win. Thanks, Alex. Thank you.
[commentator] The champions who took the title from Old Trafford
are back at Old Trafford tonight.
I think we were wounded by them winning the double the year before,
knowing how good they were.
[whistle blows]
-[whistle blows] -[crowd shouting angrily]
There was nothing between us, and Sir Alex was up against it.
You know, he reacted to '98 in a big way.
[whistle blowing]
[commentator] This is taken on the turn by Parlour. Positive work from him.
Kanu... That's brilliantly played by the Nigerian!
A goal for Nicolas Anelka!
It was two teams right at the top of the game
as good as you could get... just not giving an inch.
[commentator] Phillip Neville to the left.
Oh, it's Andy Cole with a header! Must go, it does go! 1-1.
[crowd roaring]
Arsenal have cracked.
It was a finely contested match between two sides
who are gonna swipe punches right through
until the end of the season, that's for sure.
[Parlour] When you look back at the footage, it was a really tough game,
but it's always harder to retain your title.
[narrator] Nothing could separate the two sides.
They were neck and neck going into the last two games of the season.
[Keown] The Leeds game was hugely significant.
We were same points as Manchester United.
[commentator] Here come Leeds again pouring forward. Alan Smith.
Kewell to his left.
Dixon is the defender.
Kewell with a cross, Hasselbaink!
And Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink could have headed Arsenal out of the championship!
We had chances in that game, it just wasn't to be.
Losing to Leeds United in the 87th minute really cost us that season,
which was very disappointing as a club and as a player and as a team.
[narrator] As Manchester United charged towards yet another title,
one-time champions Blackburn Rovers
found themselves in a desperate fight of their own--
to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
As the season entered its final stages, the two clubs would meet.
Only a victory would keep Blackburn up.
[commentator] The Blackburn Rovers fans here are asking tonight
how is it that they've spent ú52 million over six years
and are on the brink of relegation.
[chanting] Rovers!
[Preugschat] Oh, I were nervous. Part of you thinking...
this can't happen.
It can't happen.
But it might happen.
On that particular night, I think we played really well.
Well, they were out of our league, the big teams.
They were definitely out of our league.
They had more supporters, they had bigger stadiums,
they had more money to spend on players,
they had bigger managers.
[crowd groaning]
[reporter] Sport now, and a sad night at Ewood Park
as Blackburn Rovers were relegated.
The clips are quite poignant. Quite, you know...
It was an emotional time, that.
When you get relegated, it's just...
it's just the worst feeling.
You feel it for the town.
You feel it for everybody.
I feel so sad. I've been in tears and I'm gutted for them.
[Preugschat] The knock-on effect of being relegated is quite striking.
People lose their jobs. There's redundancies.
Morale drops.
[reporter] Jack Walker's millions
have helped to put Blackburn on the map.
There are fears the local economy could now suffer.
Likes of the chippy, the cafe, the local pubs and stuff,
they rely a lot on supporters coming,
and that's what creates a lot of their business.
Upsetting for Jack. Really upsetting.
I felt for him, 'cause he'd done everything he possibly could.
[reporter 1] The expression on the Blackburn chairman's face said it all.
The team that Jack Walker built had lost its place...
[reporter 2] He spent a hundred million pounds on the stadium and the players
only to see the club right back where they were
before he started writing the big cheques.
[commentator] As for Manchester United,
if they beat Spurs at Old Trafford on Sunday,
they will be the champions no matter what Arsenal do.
1999 is the most bizarre season because, on the one hand,
you've got a team absolutely firing on the pitch,
and yet what they have delivered has made them vulnerable to a takeover
by the last person on earth that you want to take over the club.
[Walsh] One of our committee members said
that he'd just had a row with his partner.
She said, "You're not gonna beat Murdoch."
She says, "What chance have you lot got of beating Murdoch?
You haven't got any grip on reality. You think Eric Cantona's a living god."
And then we got a phone call,
anonymous tip-off from a woman within the civil service.
Don't know who it was.
But she just phoned us up and said, "You've won."
The proposed takeover of Manchester United by BSkyB
has been blocked by the government.
-Come on! -[reporter] The trade secretary said
the merger would adversely affect competition between broadcasters
and would damage the quality of British football.
It was David v Goliath. No one thought we'd win,
but we see the result of the fans' voice, the fans' power and the fans united.
Well, some people still think that Cantona's a living god, and we did beat Murdoch.
[reporter] At a stroke, the government has destroyed a key business strategy
of Rupert Murdoch and BSkyB.
This is a bold, unequivocal rejection of a close and a powerful ally.
Sure, it was disappointing.
Ah, it wasn't a very long conversation with Mr Murdoch, though.
He doesn't like to lose at anything, right? None of us do.
[interviewer] After the deal fell through then,
did you continue to follow Manchester United at all?
Not much. [chuckles]
I've been more of a Chelsea fan.
You have to stand up for what you believe in,
and not a lot of people can say
that they beat Rupert Murdoch, but we did.
[crowd singing]
[commentator] It's Andy Cole. Can he get it over Walker?
[crowd roaring] Cole! Within three minutes...
[narrator] In the final match of the season, United clinched the title.
Then went on to match Arsenal's double by winning the FA Cup.
[commentator] He's got his teammates in trouble.
That's Sheringham to score! [crowd roars]
[narrator] But they still had an opportunity to go one better.
[commentator] It's another marvellous day for Alex Ferguson's team
for whom the success story simply goes rolling on.
[Schmeichel] We had the FA Cup final on a Saturday.
We had a party after the game in the hotel,
and then on Sunday, we left for Barcelona.
[commentator] It's the chance of a lifetime, a treble chance,
the likes of which no English team has had before
or may ever get again.
[narrator] United would face
German champions Bayern Munich in Barcelona.
Victory would see them become the first English club
to be crowned European champions in the Premier League era.
[commentator] McClair is breaking down the centre.
Johnson has got some catching up to do.
Stops Carsten Jancker on the edge of the box
and concedes a free kick.
The feeling in the game was that we were absolutely terrible
and we never created anything.
[commentator] It's Basler. Oh, it's deflected and in!
[crowd cheering]
First blood to Bayern Munich!
[Beckham] I remember us not actually playing that well.
Um, and then, obviously, they get the early goal.
And then they get a couple of other chances
where they should have scored.
They hit the bar, hit the post.
But the one thing the manager said was,
"Don't put yourself in a situation where you have to walk past that trophy
and you can't touch it at the end of the game."
[Schmeichel] When we moved into risk mode,
when we threw caution to the wind,
when we gambled everything,
we understood instinctively, on the pitch,
that it doesn't matter if we lose this game 1-0 or 2-0.
Doesn't matter. It doesn't change the outcome of that game.
The fact of the matter is, if you lose the game, you don't win that trophy.
That's what we're there for.
[commentator] Three added minutes.
It was take risks, play attacking football,
play with wide players.
Throw everything in the box in the final five minutes.
You must do everything you can to win games,
and that's why I'm on the left wing
with two minutes to go.
The first corner, I get the corner,
just basically thinking I'm just gonna go for it.
[crowd groans]
[Beckham] I remember getting that first corner,
and just something all of a sudden clicked for us.
[Neville] Sir Alex wasn't gonna accept us not winning
'cause someone was quicker than us or someone was taller than us,
or someone was tactically better than us,
or someone was more skilled than us. Don't care. Find a way to win.
[commentator 1] The big goalie's coming up.
[commentator 2] Peter Schmeichel is forward.
Can he score another in Europe? He's got one in Europe already.
[commentator 1] Beckham. It's towards Schmeichel!
Find a way. Don't matter how, find a way.
[commentator 1] Giggs with a shot! Sheringham!
[crowd roaring]
Then, of course, we win the next corner and...
Now I can't talk about it anymore.
[commentator 1] Beckham... in to Sheringham!
[crowd roars]
[laughs]
[commentator 1] History is made.
Manchester United are the champions of Europe again,
and nobody will ever win a European Cup final
more dramatically than this.
That drama played out around the world.
That was the moment that a lot of people suddenly thought,
"This is significant. This is huge."
[all cheering]
This is drama on another scale.
And I think, in terms of the next stage of development of the Premier League,
that was the moment that enabled it to say, "Right.
Every territory in the world will buy this."
I don't think that would have happened without '99.
[reporter] The moment every Manchester United fan had been waiting for.
Less than 24 hours after their triumph in Barcelona,
the champions of Europe were back on home soil.
Waiting for them, a crowd of some half a million people
lining the victory route into the city's centre.
It was crazy. That was absolutely crazy.
Bloody nice.
[Beckham] It was so emotional and it was such a moment.
The hundreds of thousands of fans that had turned up to see us return was just...
There's nothing that could ever top that. Nothing.
That moment, that specific moment, going down Deansgate,
I always say it was probably the one moment in my life,
if I could ever go back, it would be then.
Seeing those fans off the scaffolding, grown men and women crying,
just so much emotion.
The romantic image of Manchester United
was the one formed by Matt Busby,
which was telling his players before they went out,
"Those guys on the terraces, you're playing for them.
They're paying your wages.
You give them a chance to dream.
That's the most important thing."
[Walsh] I've got two boys who are both in their mid to late 20s now.
It was a big thing for me that they both went
to their first away games when they were five.
It's not just a central part of my life,
it's an essential part of my life.
[narrator] With a Premier League club triumphant in Europe,
it was a springboard for creating new fans all over the world.
You were catapulting this sort of brand of the Premier League around the world.
And I think that's the point where the Premier League stole a march
on the rest of Europe.
[White] I think there has been an unintended consequence
of the Premier League's great success.
Basically, to take the football club
away from the community that gave birth to it.
What this was was content for universal broadcasting,
and it was becoming worldwide.
And the pound in the pocket of a guy in Yeovil or Yangon
was as important as the guy living in Stretford.
[Dein] All of a sudden,
the television revenue went through the roof
and on the back of that, always you have sponsors coming on board.
Everybody wants to be your friend.
[Edwards] When I took over in 1980,
Manchester United was worth two million.
When I stepped down, we'd been over a billion.
[reporter] The die-hards thought nothing of queuing since before dawn
to see their hero in the flesh.
People queue all over the world like this to watch Beckham play football,
but this-- this is for Beckham on public speaking.
[narrator] The Premier League's reach
had begun to extend across the world.
And yet, this was still just the beginning of the story.
[Crick] Ten years after the Premier League started,
the whole finances of football were transformed.
We had a temporary success in fighting off BSkyB,
but of course around the corner,
there would be takeovers galore
of top football clubs in this country.
So, it's 20 years ago now.
It seems like a sort of rather naive, innocent period, that,
compared with what we've got today.