The Saudi government has confirmed that it will support bids from within the country for Liverpool and Manchester United.
Both historic English clubs have been put up for sale with their respective owners, the Fenway Sports Group and the Glazer family, looking to hand over control.
United’s shock announcement of a potential sale has understandably put the world’s most affluent businessmen and sovereign funds on notice, with the club boasting one of the largest sports fanbases globally.
Saudi Arabia’s sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal issued comments that relayed his government’s commitment to supporting private bids for takeovers of these clubs.
The Saudi sports minister said, “From the private sector, I can’t speak on their behalf, but there is a lot of interest and appetite and there’s a lot of passion about football. It’s the most-watched league in Saudi and the region and you have a lot of fans of the Premier League.”
“We will definitely support it if any (Saudi) private sector comes in because we know that’s going to reflect positively on sports within the kingdom.”
He added, “But if there’s an investor willing to do so and the numbers add up, why not?”
Should United be taken over by Saudi wealth, the Red Devils would join Newcastle in this regard.
The Magpies were taken over by Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund over a year ago and have experienced an incredible turnaround, to say the least.
Newcastle currently sit third in the Premier League table after significant investment that saw the likes of Sven Botman, Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes come in.
It will be interesting to see how this develops over time and whether indeed the Saudis make good on their interest to take over the reins at Old Trafford.
For many United fans, the greatest positive is that an end to the Glazers era now seems to be a solid possibility.
