Elon Musk clarifies tweet on buying Manchester United, says it's a 'long-running joke'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has clarified that he is not buying the Premier League team Manchester United. On August 17, Musk tweeted that he is looking to buy the Old Trafford team, but has now made a quick U-turn. Musk clarified that it is a long-running joke on Twitter and he is not buying any sports team. However, he also added that if he ever goes on to buy any team, it would surely be Manchester United.

In his tweet about buying the EPL team, Musk said, “I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome (sic)”. Replying to a Twitter user who asked Musk if he is serious, the Tesla CEO said, “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams”. He then referred to a previous tweet, where he spoke about buying coca-cola and informed that he is also not buying the beverage company.

In his final tweet, Musk said, “Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid (sic)”.

Here's a look at Elon Musk's series of tweets about buying Manchester United:

Elon Musk backed out of his USD 44 billion deal to buy Twitter 

Interestingly, the Tesla CEO is currently involved in a legal battle with the social media website Twitter. Earlier this year in April, Musk offered to buy the social media platform and made a USD 44 billion deal for the same. However, he later backed out of the deal, claiming that Twitter held back necessary information about the true size of its user base. 

Musk revealed that the social media website is infested with a much larger no. of 'spam bots'  and fake accounts, than what has been disclosed. This led to Twitter pursuing legal action against Musk in order to enforce the merger action. The social media platform seeks to force the billionaire to continue with his deal of buying the social media giants. 

As per AP news, Twitter said Musk’s reasons for backing out from the deal was a story that is imagined to escape the merger agreement. Replying to Musk’s claims about “spam bots” Twitter revealed that the billionaire’s analysis relied on a generic web tool that also designated the Tesla CEO’s own Twitter account as a bot. The case is scheduled to go under trial on October 17.