Colonel Gaddafi almost owned Manchester United

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was "a few hours" away from completing a takeover of Manchester United in 2004, according to a financier who led negotiations with the Libyan dictator's advisors.

John Magnier and JP McManus fell out with authoritative manager Sir Alex Ferguson over the ownership of racehorse Rock of Gibraltar, encouraging the Irish businessmen to sell their 29.9 percent share in the club. Turkish-Cypriot financier Mehmet Dalman flew into Libya to discuss how to purchase the stake and claims a deal was close.

"People don't realise how the (takeover) deal was a whisker away from going to Libya," Dalman told the Sunday Times, as reported by The Telegraph's Daniel Zeqiri. "Gaddafi almost bought the club. That's how close it got - literally, you're talking about a few hours."

Dalman eventually made his own way into football, and currently serves as chairman at Cardiff City, but Gaddafi's arrival at England's most noteworthy club would've had a transformative effect on the country's game.

Gaddafi is a pioneer of enabling Arabic countries to take a majority share in revenues from oil production, and his native Libya was a prominent beneficiary of the renegotiations. But he was also a despot, as people who questioned his constitution and absolute power faced imprisonment or death. Gaddafi is also thought to have overseen the assassination of Libyan exiles who escaped his regime.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

At a time when he toured the world and shared his anti-imperialist campaign, Manchester United could have been a valuable vehicle for Gaddafi to spread his word.

Saadi Gaddafi, son of Colonel Gaddafi, confirmed to the Financial Times in 2005 that his father was looking into a potential deal to acquire the Red Devils.

"Seven or eight months ago we were about to buy shares in Manchester United. We kept it secret because I thought we were going to do it. But now it's impossible," the younger Gaddafi said.

"I told my father it would be like buying the Church of England. It's very hard, maybe impossible because of the fans and the history, very difficult. It's a golden, golden, golden, golden club."

The 29.9 percent share eventually fell into the control of the Glazer family, causing widespread protests by Manchester United fans as the club became riddled with the Americans' debt.