A Qatari sheikh from the Gulf nation’s ruling Al-Thani family and the British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe will battle it out to own Manchester United, after both declared their bids on Friday night.
The Qatari, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, tabled an offer before the 10pm deadline set by the New York bank overseeing the sale. In response, the Ratcliffe camp finally released confirmation of his bid – telling the US-based Glazer family who own the club that he wants to “put the Manchester back into Manchester United”.
The Ineos owner, who already has a significant sporting empire, can be the “long-term custodian for the club” after receiving Wall Street backing, sources said.
Ratcliffe, a lifelong fan who was in the stands at the Nou Camp as United won the Treble in 1999, will offer a compelling case to some United fans. Others will prefer the huge wealth of Qatar and its sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), to which Sheikh Jassim has close family links.
Other bids have been made to buy United, but not all bidders have not yet been identified. Those other possible purchasers will include private equity consortiums from the US.
Raine Group, the merchant bankers acting on the Glazer family’s behalf, helped sell Chelsea last year and will remember acutely that offers continued arriving beyond the cut-off point. For United, the deadline for offers is not a hard cut-off due to the club’s New York Stock Exchange listing, which ensures the owners must consider the best offer whenever it is tabled.
Drawing comparisons with other bidders in the process, a friend of Ratcliffe told Telegraph Sport: “There’s a lot at stake for football more widely, in my view.”
A source close to Ineos added: “[Ratcliffe’s] aim is to be a long-term custodian of Manchester United and set the standard for a progressive approach to club ownership. As locally born, he wants to put the Manchester back into Manchester United.”
Qatari ‘wants to return the club to its former glories’
Ratcliffe, Britain’s 27th wealthiest person with a fortune of more than £6 billion according to rich lists, has been working with two prolific investment banks for several weeks to finalise his proposal. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co are understood to be backing his offer with bonds and loans beyond the value of United’s existing debt of £659 million.
On a dramatic deadline day for bids, the owner of the petrochemicals giant learned that his main rival for the club will be Sheikh Jassim, who is the son of former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, known as “HBJ” and a major figure in modern Qatar.
Sheikh Jassim’s Doha bid team immediately promised to make the club debt-free, but it is unclear how much they are willing to pay for a club valued by the Glazers at £5 billion.
Sheikh Jassim said in a statement that his submission was for “100 per cent” of the club. “The bid plans to return the club to its former glories both on and off the pitch, and – above all – will seek to place the fans at the heart of Manchester United Football Club once more,” his statement added.
Telegraph Sport was first to report last November that Ratcliffe was still interested in buying United. Ratcliffe is a familiar figure to both the Glazers, having held talks last year with them and with the New York-based Raine Group.
Brokers spoke to Ratcliffe at the start of the fraught sale of Chelsea last year. He walked away citing the price but then returned several weeks later with a bid which matched Todd Boehly’s successful offer for the club.
But despite several previous failed attempts to buy both Chelsea and United, he has demonstrated to key dealmakers that he is deadly serious about getting the United deal over the line.
Telegraph Sport also reported on Monday how figures within Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund would table a bid.
“The bid will be completely debt free via Sheikh Jassim’s Nine Two Foundation, which will look to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium and wider infrastructure, the fan experience and the communities the club supports,” a statement from Al Thani’s team added. “The vision of the bid is for Manchester United Football Club to be renowned for footballing excellence, and regarded as the greatest football club in the world.”
Who is Sheikh Jassim?
Sheikh Jassim, 41, was educated in the UK at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. As well as chairing QIB, one of the leading banks in Qatar, he has previously been a board member at Credit Suisse Group AG and Credit Suisse AG, Zurich, according to his biography. His biography adds that, like the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, he is a “life-long Manchester United fan”.
There will be immediate questions, however, over potential connections with the £370 billion QIA and its subsidiary Qatar Sports Investments, which owns Paris Saint Germain. His father, “HBJ”, was one of Qatar’s most powerful figures in the late 1990s and 2000s – and served as head of the QIA.
HBJ also served as Prime Minister and was reportedly an integral figure as the QIA used its gas riches to buy the Shard, Chelsea Barracks, Canary Wharf, the London Stock Exchange, the Berkeley and the Connaught hotels in London. Under the current emir, HBJ is said to have been sidelined to some extent and replaced as head of the QIA.
The Qatari bidder is understood to have provided an “indicative” price. The Glazers value the club at around £5 billion. It will only be in later stages of the process – when full access to United’s finances are provided in a data room – that a specific final price will be offered.
The family could face protests from human rights groups who have already urged the Glazers to turn down any Qatari or Saudi Arabian bids. There may also be questions from Uefa, given tht the House of Thani is the ruling family of Qatar, and ultimately owns PSG.