Elon Musk Clarifies Tweet About Buying Premier League Club, Manchester United

Elon Musk has clarified he was joking after announcing on Twitter he would be buying Manchester United.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur flagged the purchase of the football club in a short tweet on Tuesday but later replied to a comment asking if he was serious about the move saying that it was a “long-running Twitter joke” and not true.

Musk, had tweeted to his 103 million followers: “To be clear, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party!” and in a follow-up tweet posted: “Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome.”

In his reply to a comment he wrote: “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.

The comment by the chief executive of electric car giant Tesla comes as United, champions of England a record 20 times, suffer a nightmare opening on the field to the 2022-2023 season.

One of the world’s best known and most widely supported teams, United are rooted at the bottom of the English Premier League after losing their first two games, having failed over the past two months to adequately rebuild a squad that performed comparatively poorly last season.

Its New York-listed shares have slid 24 percent over the last 12 months, valuing it at just more than $2bn.