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The sale of Manchester United, or not, by the Glazer family is becoming more of a circus with each passing day.
9pm yesterday evening was supposed to be the deadline for the second round of bids to buy the club and despite both frontrunners, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, claiming to have submitted fresh bids, neither in fact had done so according to the Raine Group, who are handling the sale.
In fact, it was later reported that both bidders had asked for an extension to the deadline, which had been granted.
According to The Telegraph’s Tom Morgan, a United insider said “this has not gone down well” with the Glazers.
Very odd night. There is a difference of opinion between various sources close to the deal on who exactly first asked for an extension. “This has not gone down well,” says one United insider #mufc https://t.co/bznJONtive
— Tom Morgan (@Tom_Morgs) March 23, 2023
A new deadline of 9pm GMT on Friday has reportedly been set.
✅ The deadline for bids is 9pm GMT on Friday. @BBCSport #MUFC
— UtdPlug (@UtdPlug) March 23, 2023
The delay has allowed silly season to loom even larger in the process, as another bidder revealed his hand today.
Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus claims he has submitted a bid to buy 50% of the club on the condition that the other 50% is bought by the club’s fans.
“The current development, where billionaire sheiks [sic] and oligarks [sic] take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend”, the entrepreneur explained (via @UtdDistrict).
“The current market value of the club is just under3.9 billion USD. That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than 6 dollars.
“My bid is built on equality with the fans. My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half.
“If every fan joins it means less than 3 dollars per fan.
“Each fan who joins will have access to an app which the fan, from anywhere in the world, can use to participate and cast his vote when deciding on footballing matters relating to the club. No decisions will be taken thatare not supported by a majority of the fan base.”
https://twitter.com/UtdDistrict/status/1638878462281674752/photo/1
The bid is a bizarre one. Whilst every fan would no doubt dream of such a scenario, the proposal is ludicrous and unworkable.
Presumably it has been lodged for PR purposes or to express political opinion rather than being a legitimate, serious bid.
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