Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid to buy Manchester United would not burden the club with debt if successful, with the billionaire rejecting any leveraged buyout of the type used by the Glazer family.
The Ineos owner hopes to paint himself as a safe custodian of the club he supports and in tune with the values of their fanbase, as rival consortiums prepare to formalise their offers for the 20-times English champions.
Raine, the bank in charge of the sale, has set an initial deadline of Friday for bids. Ineos has made the only publicly confirmed offer and under its plan any debt incurred in financing a takeover would be expected to be put on the books of the petrochemicals company.
A rival offer is expected from Qatar but the vehicle for any proposal remains unknown. On Thursday questions were raised with the Premier League and Uefa over whether a takeover from the Gulf state could be “independent of state influence”.
At this stage, any offers are non-binding. This essentially makes the first round an opportunity for Raine and the Glazer family to gauge the range of interest. Rumours of multiple bidders, from Elon Musk to Apple or Amazon, have been aired over the past week but the Guardian understands any bidding pool this week is likely to be small .
The Glazers will hope to drum up further offers over the coming weeks, and those already in the bidding process are likely to speak more publicly about their intentions.
Earning the trust of a fanbase wounded by the Glazer era will probably form part of any strategy, with Ratcliffe perhaps hopeful that setting out his differences from the current owners will help his cause. The 70-year-old is understood to see any acquisition as an opportunity to shape his legacy.
A Qatari deal would have hurdles to clear with football authorities. On Thursday the human rights organisation FairSquare published a letter calling on Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, and the CEO of the Premier League, Richard Masters, to block any Qatari takeover, arguing: “No consortium of Qatari investors capable of [acquiring Manchester United] would be able to convincingly demonstrate their independence from the Qatari state.”
Uefa rules prevent any owner from exerting “control or influence” over another club in the same European competition. The state-funded Qatar Sports Investments owns Paris Saint-Germain and sources have previously told the Guardian a Qatari deal for United could necessitate changes in Uefa’s rulebook.
In his letter the director of FairSquare, Nicholas McGeehan, argues that it would be impossible to separate any Qatari consortium from the possibility of state funding. “Checks and balances on the way in which funds are distributed and used by the [Qatari] ruling family are minimal to nonexistent,” he writes, “which would undermine any assurances provided about the sources of funding for such an acquisition.”
McGeehan goes on to say: “State ownership of European football clubs jeopardises the integrity of the game, its proclaimed values and its sustainability.”
