Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has submitted a world record bid to buy Manchester United as the takeover process reaches its final stages.
It has been five months since the Glazer family announced their intentions to seek ‘strategic alternatives’ to their ownership of Manchester United, up to and including a full takeover.
Since then, a whole host of names have been linked with making an investment in the Old Trafford outfit, with Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Ineos’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe the two main names looking to take control.
There have already been two rounds of bidding, and The Raine Group – working on behalf of the Glazers to oversee the process – set a deadline of 10pm BST for third and final bids to be submitted.
According to the Telegraph, Sheikh Jassim unsurprisingly submitted a third bid of ‘around £5 billion’ ($6.28bn), a figure that would represent a world record fee for a sports team.
That record was only set earlier this month when the Washington Commanders were bought for $6bn, while last year, Chelsea became the world’s most expensive football club as Todd Boehly completed a £2.5bn takeover, while committing a further £1.75bn to investment in the club.
The Telegraph report says that Sheikh Jassim ‘remains the favourite to land the club’, with his debt-free bid the only one offering to buy 100 per cent of the club.
Aside from his £5bn offer, the chairman of the Qatar Islamic Bank has also ‘vowed to provide significant investment to redevelop Old Trafford or build a new stadium and overhaul the Carrington training base’ and is said to consider his bid as ‘the best for club, fans and community’.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe – who also submitted his final offer on Friday – has offered to take a controlling 50 per cent stake in his boyhood club, offering some of the Glazers the opportunity to retain a minority shareholding in the Premier League side.
Aside from the two main bids to take control of the club, there are other interested parties who are believed to have offered to take a minority stake in the club in return for investment.
The report says that the Glazers ‘will decide whether to sell Manchester United over the coming days’, with the American owners’ ambitious asking price of £6bn having not been met, while two of the six siblings – Avram and Joel – are still said to be open to staying at Old Trafford.
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