Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has made a new offer to purchase Manchester United. According to BBC Sport, the offer was submitted on Tuesday morning and is being handled by the Raine Group. The Qatari banker and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group are the two primary parties vying for the Old Trafford club. Both groups had previously submitted third bids at the end of April. It is believed that the new bid is for 100% of the club, will clear United’s debt, and includes a separate fund for the club and local community. Figures from March showed that United had a gross debt of £969.6 million, bank borrowings, and outstanding transfer fees with associated payments.
In November, the Glazer family announced that they were considering selling Manchester United and exploring “strategic alternatives”. There has been no response from the Glazer family since the last bid deadline on April 28th, but there is increasing confidence in the Ineos camp that their efforts to buy United will be successful. It is understood that one of Ratcliffe’s suggestions has been to lower the amount of United he wanted to buy from an initial 69% to just over 50%, which would allow co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer to retain some involvement. Avram Glazer was present at the Carabao Cup final in February and watched United’s women’s team lose in the FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday.
The Glazer family has not indicated when they will make a decision regarding the future of Manchester United. They bought the club for £790m in 2005 and have established a valuation of between £5bn and £6bn for it. It was expected that an announcement would come this week, given that 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 that this will happen.