The deadline for bids for Manchester United, who play in the English Premier League, expired late on Friday evening. According to media reports, the American Glazer family, which owns United, has received two offers for the legendary football club.
Even earlier, the one who was titled as the richest man in Britain expressed his interest Sir Jim Ratcliffeowned by Ineos, submitted an offer for the club.
Late on Friday evening, the Qatari sheikh also expressed his desire to buy Jassim bin Hamad al-Thaniwho serves as chairman of the Qatari bank QIB.
Sheikki Jassim’s Nine Two Foundation is interested in 100% ownership of the club.
– The purpose is to return Manchester United to the top and the greatest football club in the world, the announcement said (you will switch to another service).
Sheikki Jassim says he started supporting Manchester United when he was 10 years old. He has promised to invest in both the men’s and women’s teams, refurbish the legendary Old Trafford stadium and its surroundings, and the club’s training grounds.
The son of the former prime minister of Qatar has received his education in Britain, Sandhurst. In addition to QIB, he has previously also been a member of the board of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse.
So far, the most famous Qatari-owned club is the French PSG, which has been owned by Qatar Sports Investment since 2012.
The PSG boss of Nasser al-Khelaif is believed to play a significant role in the offer made to Manchester United as well. QSI, which he heads, is known to be interested to buy at least a minority stake in a Premier League club (you switch to another service).
Uefa rules prohibit (you switch to another service) ownership in several clubs that play in the same competition, i.e. for example two clubs of the same owner playing in the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League should not be possible according to the rules. However, the rule does not apply to a minority stake, and QSI owns a minority stake in the Portuguese club Braga.
Ratcliffe, on the other hand, also owns Nice, which was also seen on the Euro fields. On the other hand, in 2017 Uefa also allowed Leipzig and Salzburg, owned by energy drink giant Red Bull, to play in the Champions League. Nasser al-Khelaifi also happens to be the chairman of ECA, the association of European club teams, and ECA works closely with UEFA.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos already owns the French football club OGC Nice as well as the Swiss Lausanne. The company also owns a sailing team and a cycling team, in addition to which it has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with the Formula 1 team Mercedes.
The 70-year-old British billionaire Ratcliffe was born in Greater Manchester and says that he has supported Manchester United since childhood. Ratcliffe previously also sought to buy Chelsea, but the offer arrived late. According to the billionaire, he first sought to buy United, but stated that the Glazer owner brothers were still reluctant to sell the club in October.
– We can’t just wait and wonder that one day they decide to sell United, Ratcliffe stated at the time. (you switch to another service)
There is no exact information about Ratcliffe’s assets. Forbes estimates the British billionaire’s fortune at 12.5 billion pounds, while the Sunday Times believes Ratcliffe’s fortune is closer to six billion.
Current owners not popular with fans
The American Glazer family has owned Manchester United since 2005. Among supporters, the US owners have not gained much popularity.
The reasons go back to the already disputed purchase process: the deceased Malcolm Glazer acquired majority ownership of the club in 2005, controversially, mainly with debt money. According to media reports, the debt is still estimated at 500 million pounds.
Nowadays, the company is run by Malcolm Glazer’s sons Joel and Avram Glazer. Supporters have been protesting against the owners for years. Already in 2010, they started wearing the club’s original, yellow-green colors. In the spring of 2021, the Premier League match between Manchester United and Liverpool even had to be canceled when United supporters protested against the owners’ Super League plans.
In November, the Glazers unexpectedly announced that they are ready (you switch to another service) to sell Manchester United. However, they have reportedly not decided whether they want to sell the club completely or perhaps partially. The schedule has not been locked in either.
Manchester United is one of the most valuable sports brands in the world: According to Forbes (you will switch to another service) ManU is the third most valuable football club in the world after Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Last fall In the Forbes listing (you will switch to another service) ManU was ranked 19th in the list of sports clubs and its value was estimated at 4.6 billion dollars, or about 4.3 billion euros. In addition to Real Madrid and Barcelona, there were 13 NFL clubs, two NBA clubs and one MLB club.
The amount of the bids has not been disclosed to the public, but the CEO and founder of CLV Group, which is familiar with the data of the US sports and entertainment business Neil Joyce believed the sale price of ManU to be close to five billion pounds (about 5.6 billion euros).
– I know there have been rumors about a price of around four billion, while others are talking about an offer of more than six billion pounds. We believe that the price will settle in between, Joyce commented to Reuters.
According to Joyce, there has been a lot of ego- and family-oriented ownership in football in the past, but for example the Saudi Arabian PIF acquisition of Newcastle was setting a new threshold for what clubs are worth.
The Glazers paid 790 million for the club 17 years ago. According to Joyce, private equity companies traditionally seek 2-4 times returns on their capital. He believed that the Glazers can get a 6-8 times return on their initial investment by selling ManU.
The Qatari sheikh’s offer is part of a wider phenomenon
Not everyone has been happy with the Qatari offer. Rainbow Devils, one of ManU’s supporter groups, demanded on Friday that all new buyer candidates make soccer possible for everyone, including representatives of gender and sexual minorities.
The human rights organization Fair Square approached the UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Premier League boss Richard Masters already on Thursday expressing his concern about the Qatari offer.
The concern is related to a wider phenomenon in which Middle Eastern countries try to use sports to influence the negative images that are often associated with Arab countries.
Human rights violations related to Qatar came up in the media, especially in connection with the World Cup.
The most recent example in the Premier League is from autumn 2021, when Newcastle moved to the disputed Saudi Arabian ownership. The deal was supposed to take place already in 2020, but it was canceled after lengthy investigations.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of continuous human rights violations. In the country, freedom of speech is limited, the death penalty is in use and critics of the government can be arrested indiscriminately. The rights of women and minorities are lacking, and despite numerous improvements, women are, for example, still under the patronage of men.
The Premier League accepted the deal’s guarantee that Newcastle would not be owned by the Saudi Arabian state. However, the club is owned by a group of investors, the largest owner of which is the Saudi Arabian state investment fund PIF (Public Investment Fund). The chairman of the fund is the country’s crown prince Muhammad bin Salmanwho has been accused, among other things, of being the reporter of what happened at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 Jamal Khashoggi for ordering murder.
Already in 2008, Manchester City was owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which is managed by the Sheikh, who is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan. The United Arab Emirates is also known for its flagrant human rights violations: people are illegally arrested, tortured and detained without trial.
Although the public has mainly written about the offers of Sheikh Jassim and the British billionaire Ratcliffe, at least according to the BBC, offers are also expected to come from the United States. There have also been rumors about a possible offer from Saudi Arabia.