The news that one of the biggest teams in football, Manchester United, is up for sale has pricked the ears of major business owners across the world, from the USA and the Middle East, including Qatar. The current owners, the Glazer family, have a team called The Raine Group who are managing the sale of the club on their behalf.
In this blog, we aim to understand more who the candidates are and what plans do they have to get United at the top of the footballing pyramid. Make sure to head over to the LV BET Sports Blog to get the latest news on the Premier League and other major European leagues around the world.
The Value of Man United
Whenever someone is trying to sell a club or anything for that matter, they will push the price up and that is exactly what the Glazers are doing. The amount mentioned is £6 billion, which, compared to what Chelsea was sold for recently – £2.5 Billion – is a substantial amount. The current valuation of Manchester United is, according to the stock market, £3.2 billion, so there is a big gap between the stock market valuation and the asking price. Will that deter investors from putting their bid in? It doesn’t seem like it.
Ever since the news broke out that the long-standing Glazer family are looking for investors, the share price doubled, increasing the overall valuation of the club. Should the £3.5 billion price tag be met or even be exceeded, it would be a world-record agreement. Similar takeover bids have come in for big clubs, with Newcastle being sold for £300m and PSG costing the relatively small amount of £60m in 2011 – funnily enough, this amount is way less than some of the player transfers paid by the same club.
What are the Glazers looking for?
The idea for the Glazers in mid-November of 2022 was to attract investors for a minority share in the club. But this has since transpired into a full-on takeover with many key figures around the world interested in running the club. The club was bought by the Glazers in 2005 for £750m. Should any of the outlined bids be entertained, they will stand to make a huge profit.
Who are the candidates?
At the moment, there are two different bids on the table, Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe but both have tabled different proposals.
Sir Jim Racliffe promised to ‘’put Manchester back into Manchester United’’, and his bid would be meeting the expectations of the Glazers. The petrochemicals billionaire has been a huge fan of the club since his childhood and it would be a fairytale experience for him to be at the helm of the team that he has adored for so long.
Rivalling him is Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani who have placed his bid through the Nine Two Foundation. Sheikh Jassim has pledged on multiple occasions that he will invest in specific areas of the club and promised to do so without loading United with debt, something that Sir Jim Ratcliffe did not promise. At the moment, the feeling is that the Sheikh’s bid is more to the Glazers’ liking, with plans to improve training facilities, the stadium and other wider infrastructure as well as the overall fan experience. At the moment, the Sheikh Jassim’s bid amounts to £4.5 billion, but he can go higher if needed. Nevertheless, he stated that he will not overpay for the club.
Apart from the initial sum of money, there are other expenses that need to be catered to, such as the accumulated debt of £580m – redeveloping Old Trafford could cost up to £1.5 billion, while other expenses such as training facilities might be important to consider. The coming years could be very interesting for United fans and players.
What does this mean for the Premier League?
Should Sir Jim Ratcliffe win the tussle and gain ownership of the club, nothing will change but should Sheikh Jassim’s bid be given the green light, that might be cause for controversy. The country’s track record on worker’s rights, women rights and its treatment of the LGBTQ+ community has been criticised over the past few years, especially in the build-up to the World Cup. There are supporters who would be delighted by the prospect of owners with near-limitless wealth arriving at Old Trafford but others will feel uneasy.
Sheikh Jassim is a member of the royal family and some have questioned the bid’s independence from the Qatari state. In conjunction, being the son of former Qatari Prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Sheikh Jassim is the chair of Qatar Islamic Bank, of which Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund owns more than 17% stake. Despite all this, Jassim’s bid insists that its funding will not come from the government of Qatar.
Amnesty International has stated that the potential Qatari bid should be a ‘wake-up call’ for the Premier League to strengthen its ownership rules, but relations between the Qatari and UK governments are good. It will look bad if the Premier League all of a sudden puts a stop to investment coming from the Gulf countries, especially when Manchester City and Newcastle are owned by Gulf states.