LONDON - Elon Musk caused a stir by tweeting that he was buying the English soccer team Manchester United — whose current owners are opposed by many fans — then saying several hours later that it was a joke.It comes as the billionaire Tesla CEO faces a legal battle in the U.S.
after backing out of a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. He is a prolific user of the platform, often musing about social issues or joking with his 103 million followers and occasionally getting into trouble with U.S.
regulators.Early Wednesday, Musk sent a tweet about his political affiliations and then added in a second tweet: "Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome."That came as shocking news in the Manchester United world — albeit welcome to many — after nearly a decade of sub-par performances.FILE - Elon Musk arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)Asked by a follower whether he was serious, Musk later tweeted, "No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter.
I’m not buying any sports teams."It wasn't Musk's first joke about buying a popular franchise. In April, he tweeted, "Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in." He noted in the thread about Manchester United that the Coca-Cola tweet had also been in jest.Musk previously ran afoul of the U.S.