1989 - Michael Knighton had his £10M offer to buy 50%(+) of ManU accepted by Martin Edwards- although he eventually acquired a seat on their board - he agreed not to acquire a majority stake. Subsequently - the directors of the club realised they could make a lot more money by floating on the London FTSE - which they duly did. Indeed, a number of clubs "went public" in the 90s. ( usually to benefit the directors )
1998 - BSkyB - who had a monopoly of live TV coverage ( the Premiership had come into being in the early 90s ) made an offer of £625M to buy 100% of the shares of ManU. The offer was duly accepted by ManU shareholders. So we could have seen ManU becoming a sort of "Haarlem Globetrotters" of football- forever on TV - and with Murdoch's backing dominating English ( World ? ) Football with the media, the football authorities, referees totally beholden to them.
( wait a minute ! ) .
Even the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal could see the problem here - the matter was debated in Parliament and referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission who banned the takeover. And - yes - Murdoch purchased a 10% (only) interest in a number of other clubs ( including City ) but he soon relinquished these holdings. Then - of course - the Glazers came along and paid c.£800M ( in a manner of speaking ) to acquire ManU - hence Sky's continued obsession with ManU.
P.S. I can't help thinking that should a "Super League" ever come into being with ManU ( and Liverpool ) appointing themselves - the "legacy clubs" -as top dogs - and this without the support of FIFA, UEFA, the FA, etc. , then I suspect ManU would again find their "world domination " ambitions thwarted by higher authority . Just a thought !