Have the Manchester United Red Devils found a buyer? A consortium led by Sheikh Jassem Ben Hamad Al Thani, president of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), announced on Friday February 17 that it had submitted an offer to get hold of the English football club.
“Sheikh Jassem Bin Hamad Al Thani confirms having submitted an offer for [le rachat à] 100 % du Manchester United Football Club », explains the press release, which does not give any details on the amount proposed for the Red Devils. The English club was put up for sale at the end of November by its American owners, the American Glazer family.
“The offer aims to restore the club to its former glory both of course and off the pitch and – above all – it aims to put fans back at the heart of Manchester United Football Club”, the statement said. If the offer goes through, the club will be released from its debts, which currently stand at 580 million euros, and its promoters undertake to “invest in the football teams, training centre, stadium and wider infrastructure”he explains again.
The petrochemical group Ineos also interested
QIB is one of the largest banks in Qatar. Its majority shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, owner of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which controls Paris Saint-Germain. One of the challenges for them will be to prove that the two clubs are not controlled by the same entity, which would prevent them from competing simultaneously in European competitions, according to UEFA rules.
The son of a former Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Jassem Bin Hamad Al Thani, 42, is portrayed as a Manchester United supporter since childhood. There are, however, expected to be other offers for the club, as the Glazers were hoping for firm offers for this Friday and would like to complete the sale by the end of April.
The English newspaper The Telegraph claimed that another avowed Red Devils fan, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, owner of the petrochemical group Ineos, which already owns clubs in Nice, France, and Lausanne, Switzerland, had also made a firm offer, a months after making his interest known. If no details have leaked out there either, Ratcliffe, “born in the city, wants to put Manchester back at the heart of Manchester United”explained a source close to Ineos, quoted in the article.
The Saudi Trail
The sale of the club to the twenty titles of champion of England was entrusted to the American investment bank Raine, already at work for the sale of Chelsea, last year.
The suitors were invited to make themselves known before Friday but, Manchester United being listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the club and its representatives will however be legally obliged to study any possible offer arriving after. Offers from the United States are also not to be excluded for what is considered one of the most famous football clubs in the world.
But Friday, it was especially the Saudi track, already mentioned by the English newspaper The Telegraphwhich made people talk. “Several private groups from Riyadh” it was like this “formally informed” on the terms of a recovery, even if the Telegraph recognized that it was not certain that an offer would be made. In this case, it would also be necessary to prove to the Premier League that Manchester United and Newcastle, which had recently passed under the Saudi flag, did have separate owners.
With a market valuation of more than four billion euros, everything suggests that a total sale of Manchester United would break the record for the biggest sale of a sports club.
Every day new crossword puzzles, Sudoku and found words.
Play
Its rival Chelsea was sold in May for 4.8 billion euros to American investors, but the sum included two billion euros in promises of investments, while the American football team Denver Broncos (NFL) changed hands for 4.4 billion euros in June.