With a reported soft deadline of February 17th for investors wanting to make a bid to buy Manchester United from the Glazers, this week has been rife with stories about those keen on doing so.
One of them is expected to come from Qatar, but there have been some questions about where the money would come from, as QSI, who own Paris Saint-Germain, have made it clear through the media that they wouldn’t make a move.
There was talk that QIA, the Qatari sovereign fund, could be where the money comes from, but L’Equipe in France now state in an article on Wednesday that it would ‘officially come from private Qatari funds’, and the bid is expected to be worth ‘around £4bn’.
They then explain that despite current Manchester United owners putting the club up for sale, ‘not everyone in the Glazer family agrees’ on doing so, described as a ‘first problem’.
As things stand, there is only one ‘public offer’, with the amount still unknown, and that comes from Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and he should ‘put forward a new offer before Friday’.
That’s because, per English sources contacted by L’Equipe, ‘the first offer is unlikely to succeed due to the financing structure of the funds’.
As for the Qatari side of things, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, was present at the Parc des Princes for the game against Bayern Munich, and it’s made clear ‘there is no question of him abandoning Paris Saint-Germain’.
That’s because the project to take over Manchester United will be ‘carried by the conjunction of several private funds that have decided to group together’, but will not involve QIA directly.
A source said to be ‘from the entourage of the investors’ told L’Equipe: “These are private funds that want to invest in Manchester United. QIA has nothing to do with it, and even if that were the case, QIA and QSI do not have the same ambitions and the same vocation. There would be no problem. And in any case, it is not QIA directly that will formulate the offer.”
The French newspaper then explain that ‘if this version were to be confirmed, UEFA could not prohibit these Qatari funds from buying Manchester United’.
And just like it was with Paris Saint-Germain, any takeover at Old Trafford ‘could be ensured by someone close to the Qatari government’, with Nassel al-Khater and Hassan al-Thawadi seen, who were the two men ‘at the head of the organisation of the last World Cup’, would ‘have the desired profile’.
Meanwhile, it’s expected that ‘other proposals should also reach the Raine Group’, those mandated by the Glazers to find a buyer for £5bn, with those said to arrive from Saudi Arabia and the United States.
