Man Utd takeover ‘in final stages’ with £6bn ‘announcement weeks away’ despite worrying claim
A ‘full’ takeover of Manchester United could reportedly ‘only be weeks away’ with Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim leading the race to oust the Glazer family.
The Premier League giants have been up for sale since last November. This process has dragged on, with United supporters (and neutrals) now desperate for a resolution.
There have officially been three rounds of bidding over the past nine months, with Sheikh Jassim and INEOS’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe emerging as the leading candidates to become the club’s new majority stakeholder.
Sheikh Jassim is only interested in a full takeover, while Ratcliffe is willing to keep the Glazer family on board with a reduced stake of around 20%.
United supporters would likely favour Sheikh Jassim’s proposal because if he takes over, the Glazer family would be gone but it remains to be seen whether they will sanction a full takeover as they have butted heads over whether this is the correct next step.
Earlier this week, Manchester Evening News claimed that Sheikh Jassim ‘is still awaiting a response from the Glazer family to his submission to buy’ the Premier League club and there is now ‘real concern’ that the US owners have no intention of selling.
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But The Sun are reporting that ‘the club are increasingly hopeful of a 100 per cent full sale going through with alternative bidder Sheikh Jassim for around £6billion’. The report adds.
‘Indeed an announcement could be only weeks away with the Sheikh’s camp having completed their due diligence.
‘The process of selling the club has now taken nine months but looks to be reaching its final stages.’
Earlier this summer, Gary Neville insisted that the prolonged Man Utd takeover process has been “embarrassing”.
“I think it’s embarrassing,” Neville told BBC Radio 5 Live when asked about the takeover saga. “But it’s what they have done, drag everything out. It’s always in their best interests and not in the best interests of the football club.
“I thought they would wait until the end of the season and beyond the FA Cup Final so they wouldn’t be subjected to protests and then it would be dealt with quite quickly. But just speaking to journalists and people around the club, there’s no news.
“The idea of Manchester United Football Club with its millions of fans in this country and around the world not being updated by their owners in respect of an ownership sale is quite frankly not good enough. But it’s fitting with the Glazers’ ownership and how they have operated silently and away from the club over in America for the last 20 years now.”
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