The protracted Manchester United takeover saga should move a step closer to resolution over the next 24 hours with bidders being told to submit their third and best offer for the club by 10pm BST on Friday.
The expectation is that the Glazer family – with the help of the Raine Group, the banking firm charged with brokering the sale – will then choose a preferred bidder next week.
However there remains no guarantee that the Glazers will relinquish control. If their asking price of £6bn is not met they could decide to stay and raise funds by selling a minority stake to a US hedge fund.
Although there remains some scepticism of the Glazers’ motives, and frustrations with the drawn-out nature of the process, for the third round of bidding interested parties have had to submit a significant level of extra paperwork. That has led to cautious optimism that, if the price is right, any sale could go through quickly and that the new owners could be in place for the summer transfer window.
There remain only two publicly declared offers for control of the club since it came on to the market last November. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani’s Qatari consortium has bid for 100% of the club while Jim Ratcliffe’s petro-chemicals company Ineos is looking for a controlling stake of just more than 50%, which would leave 20% in possession of Avram and Joel, two of the six Glazer siblings. A third option for the Glazers would be to retain the club but sell a minority stake – a decision that would appal United’s fanbase.
Sheikh Jassim, the chairman of the Qatari bank QIB and son of a former prime minister of Qatar, has the biggest pockets. He has promised to “return the club to its former glories both on and off the pitch” by investing in the team, training centre, stadium and wider infrastructure.
Ratcliffe, who was born in Failsworth in Greater Manchester, has repeatedly stressed his deep links with the club he supported as a boy. The 70-year-old billionaire, whose sporting portfolio includes the Ligue 1 club Nice and the Ineos cycling team, has promised to be “a British custodian for the club” and to “put the Manchester back into Manchester United”.
