The owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family, put the club up for sale in November, and it may be sold this summer.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani are vying to acquire Manchester United, and the club is at the center of this conflict. Furthermore, UEFA’s decision to enable six clubs that are now owned jointly to compete in Europe next season has given Britain’s richest man Ratcliffe a significant advantage over his Qatari competitor.
For the time being, UEFA has multi-club ownership rules in place to protect clubs’ integrity and prevent potential conflicts of interest. But the regulatory board has recently declared that the 2023–24 season will see the participation of AC Milan, Aston Villa, Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise, Toulouse, and Vitoria in European football.
RedBird Capital Partners is the owner of both AC Milan, who will participate in the Champions League, and Toulouse, who will compete in the Europa League’s group stage. Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton, also owns a majority stake in Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium, and both of his organizations have qualified for the Europa League this year.
Additionally, despite the fact that the NSWE company, who control Aston Villa, has an interest in Vitoria, the English club has been permitted to participate in the Europa Conference League qualification rounds with the Portuguese team.
As the owner of Nice as well, Ratcliffe is affected by the events. Additionally, there were earlier rumors that he would need to sell the French team in order to complete a purchase of the Red Devils.
Sheikh Jassim’s suggestion is for a full buyout, in contrast to Ratcliffe’s current offer for United, which would see him acquire a 75% ownership in the team. In the race to acquire ownership of the Red Devils, Ratcliffe had appeared to be losing ground to the Qatari. However, the 70-year-old earlier this week stated: “We obviously can’t say too much because we have an NDA and we respect that, but there is still a procedure and we are in the process.
“We have a solid proposal. We’ve had some wonderful conversations with the Glazers when we’ve met them, but ultimately it’s up to them to decide whether or not to proceed. We would likely accomplish our goals and do it well, in my opinion. We never lose sight of it. They are no longer being produced.
“Manchester United and these clubs are like art or other such fields. when you possess unique items whose worth increases over time since they are extremely unique and uncommon. I’m not at all happy about it. But our goal isn’t to profit from it. A highly valuable asset will appreciate in value over time.