Manchester United were the first football club to effectively extend their marketing reach beyond Europe and into Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In the early days of the Premiership and Sky Sports entering football, while everyone else was flogging bovril to a father and sons from Bermondsey and The Wirral, the United marketing machine was tapping into the lucrative Asian market and then taking the profits home to wrap up a league title or two.

So, with such a solid track record who are we to question their new ads for Azerbaijani mobile phone provider and broadcaster Bakcell?

The club sent Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand, Federicho Macheda, Patrice Evra and Sir Bobby Charlton along to film an ad for the Azerbaijan telecommunications company and the acting skills are truly a sight to behold.

Bakcell will be broadcasting MUTV in Azerbaijan and providing their subscribers with Utd coverage and will also add their names to the long list on commerical partners United have around the globe, including Chevrolet, Turkish Airlines, Toshiba and DHL.