P R T Man Utd sale: Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim makes improved offer to buy club

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has made an improved offer to buy Manchester United.

The Qatari banker and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group are the two main parties looking to buy the Old Trafford club.

Both groups submitted third bids at the end of April.

Sheikh Jassim submitted a fresh bid on Tuesday morning amid further talks involving the Raine Group, who are handling the process.

The bid is for 100% of the club, will clear United’s debt and includes a separate fund directed solely at the club and local community.

Figures in March showed United owed £969.6m through a combination of gross debt, bank borrowings and outstanding transfer fees with associated payments.

The Glazer family announced in November they were considering selling Manchester United as they “explore strategic alternatives”.

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Although there has been no response from the Glazer family since the last bid deadline on 28 April, there has been increasing confidence in the Ineos camp that their efforts to buy United would be successful.

It is understood one of Ratcliffe’s suggestions has been to lower the amount of United he wanted to buy from an initial 69% for all the Glazer stake to just over 50%, which would allow cochairmen Joel and Avram Glazer to retain some involvement.

Avram Glazer followed up his appearance at the Carabao Cup final in February by watching United’s women’s team lose in the FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday.

Glazer subsequently visited a London hotel owned by Sheikh Jassim’s father, sparking more rumours about the sales process, although BBC Sport has been told there were no talks held involving the Raine Group. There has been no indication when the Glazer family will make a decision over the future direction of United.

They bought the club for £790m in 2005 and have established a valuation of between £5bn and £6bn for it.

It had been felt an announcement could come this week given the transfer window opens in less than a month, which would give manager Erik ten Hag some clarity over his summer budget.

However, there is no guarantee this will happen.

Manager and player behaviour towards referees ‘not good enough’, says Howard Webb

The behaviour of managers and players towards match officials this season “has not been good enough”, says referees’ chief Howard Webb.

A number of Premier League managers including Jurgen Klopp, Marco Silva and Roberto di Zerbi have served touchline bans after being sent off.

Webb says a “stronger” approach is needed to try and address the issue.

“We need everybody in the game supporting a movement towards a more respectful environment,” he said.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited added: “It’s clear it has not been good enough. Everybody acknowledges we need to be stronger in dealing with behaviours not at the acceptable level.

“I think for a long time referees have taken a conciliatory approach, I did it as well. I didn’t want to overreact and ruin the game in the moment.

“But that’s not fared well in the bigger picture and we need to collectively look at ways we can change the trend - and it does need changing. We all accept that.”

The issue of manager and player behaviour towards officials has been brought into focus this season after a number of highprofile incidents.

Liverpool boss Klopp was given a one-match ban after he was sent off against Manchester City in October for berating the referee’s assistant. The German is also waiting for the result of a Football Association charge for comments he made about referee Paul Tierney after a game against Tottenham last month.

Fulham manager Silva has served two separate touchline bans, including for an incident during the Cottagers’ FA Cup defeat at Manchester United in March that also saw striker Aleksandar Mitrovic banned for eight games for pushing referee Chris Kavanagh.

Brighton boss Di Zerbi has been sent off twice - including for a melee that also saw then interim Tottenham manager Cristian Stellini dismissed - and served one touchline ban.