MUMBAI: Manchester United has teamed up with Germany-based international sports media company UFA Sports to distribute the 2012 pre-season tour to TV viewers across the world.

The Red Devils are travelling over three different continents this summer to prepare for the upcoming Premier League campaign. With stops in Europe, Africa and Asia over a time period of three weeks, Sir Alex Ferguson?s men will compete in interesting friendly matches in sold-out stadiums to get into shape.

Manchester United will kick off the tour in South Africa on 18 July, before flying out to China to face Super League club Shanghai Shenhua in front of tens of thousands of Chinese United fans. In early August, the squad will return to Europe and finish off the tour with matches against teams from Western Europe, including the top match against FC Barcelona.

MUMBAI: After calling off its $1 billion initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore due to volatile market conditions, well-known English Premier League (EPL) club Manchester United has filed for a $100 million IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It will become the first UK soccer club to go public in the US in more than a decade. The club was listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from 1991 until June 2005.

The club, which is owned by American Glazer family, said it will issue Class A and Class B, with the latter controlling most of the voting rights. The club did not specify the launch date, stock symbol, price range or size of the IPO.

Manchester United said they intend to use all the net proceeds of the issue to reduce debt, which stands at $664 million higher than the $520 million revenue it earned last year.

"Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and competitive position and reduce the availability of our cash flow to fund the hiring and retention of players and coaching staff," Manchester United said in its filing.

The team would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Manchester United Ltd, a newly formed holding company based in the Cayman Islands.

"In the Premier League, recent investment from wealthy team owners has led to teams with deep financial backing that are able to acquire top players and coaching staff, which could result in improved performance from those teams in domestic and European competitions,? the Manchester United filing said.

MUMBAI: Airtel Africa, a subsidiary of Indian telecom major Airtel, has sealed a partnership agreement with African pay TV platform DSTV that sees the two organisations working together to air a weekly TV football show, Airtel Rising Stars.

Grassroots football is part of Airtel Africa?s vision to develop and nurture young football talent and compliments Africa?s largest pan African youth football initiative, the Airtel Rising Stars, which is supported by Airtel and Manchester United.

DSTV will cover live football matches in various countries, leading towards a pan African inter-country final of the Airtel Rising Stars youth tournament being held in Nairobi later this year. The show will also trace the career paths of African footballers, demonstrating sporting journeys that have led to fame and success.

?We have always believed that football has the ability to develop and connect youth across the continent. This was the rationale behind our pan African football tournament and talent development program, Airtel Rising Stars, which is now into its second year. The enthusiasm Africa has for the sport is undeniable. Our decision to be involved in this new show compliments our ongoing commitment to support the passions of our young adult consumers," explains Airtel Africa CMO Andre Beyers.

?Airtel Football? focuses on different aspects of the sport across the continent and airs on Super Sport 9 every Monday.

Aside from profiling African footballers, the fast-paced half hour show explores a wide range of topics including insights on the sports fraternity, culture across various African countries and major tournaments/games being played on the continent. The show will run for 44 weeks and is also available to viewers in high definition.

MUMBAI: Manchester United, the globally popular football club, is reportedly mulling moving its initial public offering to US from Singapore.

Two reasons are being cited for Man-U?s move. The first reason is to secure higher valuation by moving the IPO to US. Secondly, Malcolm Glazer, the American owner of the club, wants to use the IPO in US to retain control by using a dual-class share structure.

Man-U, which was planning a $1 billion IPO on Singapore Stock Exchange, had delayed the public float because of volatility in the stock markets.

MUMBAI: Manchester United is the world?s most popular club with 659 million global followers.

Kantar, which carried out a survey, found that football remains the world?s most popular sport, with 1.6 billion followers globally, reinforcing the results of a recent Fifa survey. For the survey, Kantar gathered 54,000 respondents from 39 countries.

The club?s commercial director Richard Arnold commented on the long-term strategy that has made Manchester United the number one club in the world?s number one sport: "Manchester United has built on a tradition of iconic players, iconic teams and iconic achievements -- Beckham, Busby, Benfica ?68. Now our games are broadcast to 1.15 billion households globally, to an audience of over four billion a year."

Since 2007, Manchester United has rolled out new approaches to reach fans. The connections to the club has grown exponentially: from the increase in TV viewership from two to four billion last season, to the demand from millions of media subscribers in 72 countries through media partnerships and to the way the footage of Wayne?s overhead kick echoed around the world on social media.

"With the DHL Champions Trophy tour we have seen that passion from our community of followers face to face in 38 cities across the globe, and there does not seem to be a beach or street in the world where you do not see the Aon and Nike shirt. This survey shows that our family of followers is going from strength to strength," Arnold said.

Manchester United has 71 million followers in Americas, 90 million in Europe 73 million in Middle East and Africa, 325 million in Asia-Pacific an 108 million in China.

The number of Manchester United followers globally has grown by 98 per cent since the previous survey in 2007. Manchester United?s family of followers is larger than the combined population of the US, Brazil and Mexico.