Man Utd bidder slams ‘unprofessional’ Glazer family over ‘spectacle’ and makes takeover prediction
Man Utd bidder Thomas Zilliacus has slammed the Glazer family as the Premier League club’s owners have allowed the takeover process to become a “spectacle”.
The Finnish billionaire is one of the bidders in the running to buy Man Utd. It is understood that his latest offer – which was tabled during the second round of bidding – is still on the table, but Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are ahead of him in the race to acquire the Premier League giants.
There have officially been three rounds of bidding since Man Utd were put up for sale by the Glazer family last November. But Sheikh Jassim has lodged two extra bids in the hope of beating Ratcliffe in the battle to become United’s new majority stakeholder.
Earlier this week, reports coming out of Qatar claimed Sheikh Jassim has had ‘success’ and there will be an ‘announcement of the deal soon’, but this has since been refuted.
INEOS’ Ratcliffe – who owns Ligue 1 outfit Nice – remains ‘optimistic’ about completing his takeover of Man Utd. While Sheikh Jassim is only interested in a full takeover, the British billionaire is willing to keep the Glazer family on board with a significantly reduced stake.
It was initially hoped that the takeover would be completed during the first quarter of 2023 but the process has dragged on for far too long. There is currently no sign of there being a conclusion, even with the transfer window is now open.
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This has infuriated Zilliacus, who feels the “process the Glazer family have created is not very professional”. He also does not think that United’s owners “know what to do”.
“The whole process has become a bit of a spectacle. There are new rounds and new bids and this and that and I think it reflects the fact that the Glazers don’t really know what they want to do,” Zilliacus told Tribal Football.
“Look, I should not judge people that I have never even met. But the process they’ve created is not very professional.
“I mean, if you have three serious bidders, and I know that we are serious and I have no doubts about Sheikh Jassim and Jim Ratcliffe, then I think the normal thing would be for the seller to invite each one of the bidders to negotiations and you would discuss and you would come to a conclusion.
“Instead, we are now having these anonymous bidding rounds over and over again to a point where, as far as I know, none of the bidders really know what is going on.”
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