Manchester United have denied that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim have submitted new, world record bids to buy the club from the Glazers.
That is despite both parties briefing they have lodged offers. The race to purchase the Red Devils has intensified in recent days, with a number of groups very keen to buy the club.
A deadline was set for Wednesday at 9pm for bidders to submit their fresh offers, and it was initially understood that Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim have lodged fresh bids that would smash the record spent for a sporting franchise.
However, United have since briefed that neither group has made a new bid and that instead they have requested an extension from The Raine Group. This has been accepted, with bids from Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe still expected to arrive imminently. A number of bids from anonymous parties did meet the deadline, however.
Information from Ratcliffe and the Qatari group led by Sheikh Jassim suggested that they had increased their initial £4.5billion bids to around the £5bn mark, but that has now been denied. This is amid some concern the Glazers may not sell the club, but the picture is expected to be a lot clearer on the proposed takeover within the next couple of days.
Raine Group, the merchant bank overseeing the process on behalf of the Glazers, will decide their preferred bidder after the fresh deadline has passed. From that point, they will assess the highest offer and the the prospective buyer would be allowed access to financial information over potentially agreeing a deal.
But there are still lingering concerns a world record bid may not be enough to convince the Glazers to sell, as they value the club at £6bn. The Glazer family, who took over in 2005, are unsure whether they want to sell, but Ratcliffe's Ineos company has targeted a split shareholding of around 69%.
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This is different to Sheikh Jassim, who has bid for 100% control of the football club as he attempts to take over at Old Trafford and wipe all its debts. The Qatari business is also considered the favourite to win the race. Another option for the Glazers, meanwhile, is to sell a minority stake to a US hedge fund.
The record sum for a football club is currently held by Chelsea and Todd Boehly, who coughed up £2.5bn to purchase the Blues after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned. The United sale would also smash the £3.8bn paid by the Walton-Penner group to purchase the NFL franchise Denver Broncos last year.
This news also comes a week after chief executive Richard Arnold met with a group representing Sheikh Jassim, while he also spoke to Ineos, including Ratcliffe, who spent a number of hours at Old Trafford holding discussions.
