Thomas Zilliacus says in the press release that he is aiming to buy Manchester United.
13:10•Updated 13:10
Finnish business manager Thomas Zilliacus says that he has made a purchase offer for Manchester United, a major football club playing in the Premier League. Zilliacus plans to buy the club together with the supporters.
According to Zilliacus, the current market value of the club is less than 3.9 billion dollars, or about 3.6 billion euros. He says in the announcement (you will switch to another service) having submitted a bid through the XXI Century Capital investment company. He owns the business through his company.
– In the end, all sports clubs must belong to its supporters, Zilliacus says in the announcement.
– The current development, where billionaire sheiks and oligarchs take over clubs and treat them as their personal playgrounds, is not healthy, he continues.
Zilliacus’ goal is to buy the club half with the supporters. His company would finance half of the amount and the other half would consist of supporters’ pockets.
– If every supporter of the club goes, that means three dollars per supporter. Each of them gets access to an application that allows a supporter, from anywhere in the world, to participate and cast their vote when decisions are made about the club’s football-related matters. No decisions are made that are not supported by the majority of supporters, says Zilliacus.
Manchester United’s current owner, the Glazer family, has said the club is for sale. For example, a British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe and a Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim have offered company.
Thomas Zilliacus worked for a long time as Nokia’s Asian director in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also the chairman of the current Liike Nyt party at the founding of the Helsinki arena Harry “Hjallis” Harkimon with and also proposed selling the hall and the Jokerit hockey team to the Russians.
In 2014, Zilliacus got his social media company Yuuzoo listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The company ran into trouble in 2018 when a former employee alleged that it violated the local securities market law. The company’s operations were suspended in 2019 because the money ran out.
In sports, he has acted as chairman of HJK and co-owner of Jokerie.