The United takeover The story so far

In the previous issue I had written on the potential bidders for the takeover of Manchester United. Since then, I am sure that practically sure that all true fans of Manchester United know something about the potential takeover. This short article is an attempt to shed some more light on the confirmed bidders and what happens next.

Fast forward a few months from the date the Glazer family put Manchester United up for sale and we now officially have two bidders with competing visions for our beloved team which has been described as a British cultural asset with huge global reach.

all — will seek to place the fans at the heart of Manchester United Football Club once more.”

“The bid will be completely debt free via Sheikh Jassim’s Nine Two Foundation, which will look to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium and wider infrastructure, the fan experience and the communities the Club supports.”

A bit of background here - Sheikh Jassim’s father, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, is one of the tiny Gulf state’s richest men. Known to many as HBJ, he was the face of a Qatari investment spree in the UK that included Harrods department store and the Shard building and was previously head of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

by Robert Mizzi

the club he has supported since he was a child.

A bit of background about Sir Jim Ratcliffe

- British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is from Oldham, a lifelong Manchester United supporter and already owns two football clubs in the form of OGC Nice and Lausanne-Sport, as well as Formula 1 team Mercedes, through his company. His personal fortune exceeded £20 billion three years ago and he is believed to be working with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs for financing his bid.

Some quotes following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid: “His aim is to be a long-term custodian of Manchester United and set the standard for a progressive approach to club ownership. As locally born, he wants to put the Manchester back into Manchester United.”

“Football governance in this country is at a crossroads”, INEOS said. “We would want to help lead this next chapter, deepening the culture of English football by making the club a beacon for a modern, progressive, fan-centred approach to ownership.”

The first bidder that went public was Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the son of Qatar’s former prime minister, when he announced his intention to buy the club he claims to have supported since the age of 10.

Some quotes following this bid: “The bid plans to return the Club to its former glories both on and off the pitch, and — above

Shortly after confirmation of Al Thani’s bid, reports surfaced of a second bid from INEOS owner and boyhood United fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The 70-year-old is one of Britain’s richest men and has long been interested in a takeover of

While also acknowledging the need for investment, Ratcliffe’s opening pitch hinged more on rebuilding fractured ties with the United fan base and halting the march of foreign ownership in English football. Presently, only a handful of the Premier League’s 20 teams are British-owned and my personal opinion is that in the globalized world that we are living in, this can hardly be avoided.

I liked the fact that Ratcliffe’s company was up front in favour of the eventual release of a UK government white paper which outlines the scope of a new football regulator. The push for an independent body to oversee the game came after the attempt two years ago to launch a breakaway competition, the European Super League, which, please remember, the Glazers were part of along with owners of five other Premier League teams.

Raine, the investment bank running the sale process on behalf of the Glazers, has remained tight-lipped on whether there are other bidders in the running. The bank, which handled the record-breaking auctions for both Chelsea FC and Olympique Lyonnais last year, had set a soft deadline for those seeking to put forward investment proposals. It declined to comment on any bids.

At this stage it is worth pointing out that since plans for a possible sale were announced last November, United’s New York-listed shares have doubled, giving the club an enterprise value of about $5bn. Cunningly, the Glazers have not committed to a full sale, leaving open the possibility of taking in minority investment. Personally, I am keeping fingers crossed that a full sale happens.

While both Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe voiced their determination to win over supporters with their initial public pitches, unsurprisingly, both drew clear dividing lines related to the perceived shortcomings of the Glazers’ tenure. I could of course list a whole catalogue of shortcomings but then again, I am not bound to be diplomatically correct!

The Glazer family has been rightly criticised by United fans for burdening the club with acquisition debt and extracting hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends since their leveraged buyout in 2005.

Meanwhile United’s infrastructure, including Old Trafford, its 74,000-seater stadium and the Carrington training ground are no longer the envy of the football world. In an open letter to potential investors in December, the Manchester United Supporters Trust said the club needed “urgent capital investment” in the stadium and training ground.

To conclude…

More recently, Sheikh Jassim’s representatives were at Manchester United and Sir Jim Ratcliffe himself attended a presentation by senior management staff at Old Trafford the following day.

Talks with the Qatari delegation were held across 10 hours - a lot longer than expected. The focus of this visit was to get a perspective on what they could do with their capital investment regarding infrastructure, youth development and the women’s team.

As a result, it is expected that a second bid will be submitted imminently, probably before this article is even published. It was previously understood that the Qatari bidders were determined not to pay over the odds for the club, but that stance has seemingly softened following the delegation’s visit to Old Trafford.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is also expected to make a second offer for Manchester United after visiting the club in person, accompanied by a high-powered delegation from INEOS, including the two co-owners, Andy Currie and John Reece. Sir Dave Brailsford, who used to be the director of cycling at Team Sky and now INEOS’ director of sport, was there too.

Interesting also to note that Elliott Investment Management has also made it through to the second stage of the process, despite the fact that the firm is said to be offering funding rather than a takeover.

Our beloved club is at the crossroads, as they say. While on the pitch we have witnessed considerable improvement (barring a particular result that should be buried ASAP), there is no doubt that the club desperately needs a new injection of investment that will allow it to rise from the state of neglect it has been left to in recent years. Be it the Qataris or Sir Jim, my hope if that whoever is the new owner stick to their promises, allow the manager to build a strong team, and ensure that the team is supported by a strong state-of-the-art infrastructure from the grassroots to the top.

Numquam Moribimur…