Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani is emerging as the favourite to buy Manchester United ahead of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, with each party due to hold its first face-to-face meeting with the club executive this week.
Representatives of Thani, a Qatari banker who is seeking to purchase United via his Nine Two Foundation, are expected to meet the hierarchy in Manchester on Thursday. It is understood Thani is the favoured bidder of the Glazers due, in part, to his potential to open up business opportunities in his region to the American owners.
There is also a sense that the Glazers have not yet warmed to Ratcliffe, the owner of Ineos, who is Britain’s richest person and is due to be at United on Friday along with advisers. He plans to travel after watching his club Nice play in the Europa Conference League on Thursday at home to Sheriff tonight.
Thani is intent on buying 100% of United without taking on any debt, while Ratcliffe is thought to want only the Glazers’ 69% share, perhaps using investment. It is understood there are a number of other, not yet publicly declared, groups interested in a deal.
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Elliott Investment Management, a US fund, does not want to buy the club but is ready to offer finance to a buyer. Representatives of Elliott were at Old Trafford last Thursday for the Europa League last-16 first-leg win against Real Betis for the first face-to-face meeting regarding the sale.
Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, has said rules forbidding clubs with the same owners from playing in the same European competition could be dropped. Ineos owns Nice and Lausanne, and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) owns Paris Saint-Germain. Thani says he is independent of QSI.
Erik ten Hag was unhappy with the tackle that left Alejandro Garnacho with a “serious” ankle injury, but challenged the teenager to make a speedy recovery as Manchester United look to end the season with more silverware.
The 18-year-old was left writhing in pain following a challenge by Kyle Walker-Peters, the Southampton full-back, in Sunday’s 0-0 draw, but played on for seven minutes after receiving treatment. Ten Hag initially downplayed concerns about the severity of the issue, despite Garnacho leaving Old Trafford on crutches with his right foot in a protective boot.
The teenager revealed on Tuesday he would “not be able to help my team and teammates in the upcoming games” owing to ankle ligament damage that also rules him out of Argentina duty this month. Garnacho will miss United’s final two matches before the international break, but Ten Hag hopes he still has a big part to play as they attempt to add the Europa League and FA Cup to their Carabao Cup triumph.
“I can’t say exactly [what the timescale is] at this moment but it will take weeks, so it’s a serious injury,” Ten Hag said. “I didn’t expect [that] but a foul [and] a serious injury once again after Christian Eriksen [following a tackle by Reading’s Andy Carroll]. We have a serious injury after contact.
“Of course it’s difficult. He makes great progression and he was selected by the national team. It was a big moment for him and he’s in a really good development and you don’t want to disturb that process.
“Now we have to step away from it, but he will be back for the end of the season. So what he has to do now is deal with it, deal with the setback and then work, invest to get back before the end of the season because [at the] end of the season we can win a lot. So he has to be ready to get back as soon as possible.”
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Ceferin told Gary Neville’s Overlap YouTube channel: “We are not thinking about Manchester United only. We’ve had five or six owners of clubs who want to buy another club. We have to see what to do. The options are that it stays like that or that we allow them to play in the same competition. I’m not sure yet.
“We have to speak about these regulations and see what to do about it. There is more and more interest in this multi-club ownership. We shouldn’t just say no for the investments for multi-club ownership, but we have to see what kind of rules we set in that case, because the rules have to be strict.”
United announced on Wednesday that they would tour the US in the summer, with San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York thought to be destinations for a series of games.
