{"id":576231,"date":"2025-11-17T13:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576231\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:36:16","slug":"man-utd-set-to-create-team-in-another-league-as-huge-plans-emerge-football-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576231\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd ‘set to create team in another league’ as huge plans emerge | Football | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United<\/a> are reportedly set to launch a basketball team, according to the President of the Italian Basketball Federation, Gianni Petrucci. He claims that the Red Devils have agreed to participate in NBA Europe, a new league aiming to capitalise on the growing popularity of basketball outside of America.<\/p>\n

The initiative will see major European cities, including Manchester, hosting 10 or 12 founding franchises. In an interview with Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport<\/a>, Petrucci stated: “It’s a new league that will be good for the system, bringing resources and entertainment. The agreement also notes that registered clubs must participate in their respective domestic leagues.<\/p>\n

“In a $50 billion (\u00a337.9bn) market, European basketball has a commercial value of just $200 million (\u00a3152m). An NBA league is precisely the opportunity to increase competitiveness and expand the pool.<\/p>\n

“If Manchester United<\/a>, the most popular football team in the world, has already said yes, there must be a reason.”<\/p>\n

The proposed launch date for NBA Europe is at the beginning of the 2027\/28 season. This news comes as co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe<\/a> seeks additional revenue streams to boost the club’s finances.<\/p>\n

Despite reporting record revenue last year, the club continues to lose money.<\/p>\n

If the plans proceed, it won’t be the first time that the club has owned a basketball team. In the 1980s, United’s basketball side clinched a league championship and attracted crowds of around 1,500 at Stretford Sports Centre.<\/p>\n

They competed against teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid. However, the franchise was short-lived.<\/p>\n

In 1988, they were purchased by a group of local businessmen and rebranded as Manchester Eagles, later becoming Manchester Giants after merging with Olympic City Giants.<\/p>\n

The current team, known as Manchester Basketball, was established in 2024, following the dissolution of British Basketball League’s Manchester Giants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United are reportedly set to launch a basketball team, according to the President of the Italian Basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[12048,182690,94,24500,182687,182689,182688,25283,423,182686,65022,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-576231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-basketball-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-man-utd","12":"tag-man-utd-basketball","13":"tag-man-utd-nba","14":"tag-man-utd-nba-team","15":"tag-man-utd-news","16":"tag-manchester-united-fc","17":"tag-nba-section","18":"tag-nba-europe","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115565310280711065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}