While it had been dead in the water for awhile, it appears that we finally have some developments again in the race to takeover Manchester United. Today we’ll cover the latest, from both the perspective of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheik Jassim, and also analyze the eyebrow-raising comments made by club icon David Beckham on the situation.
Let’s start here with Ratcliffe.
A report in Bloomberg last night claims that United’s owners, the Glazer family, “currently views Ratcliffe’s bid for a minority stake as more attractive than an alternative Qatari offer for the whole club.”
There have also been reports that Ratcliffe, a British billionaire who owns the giant chemical corporation INEOS, has a meeting with the MUFC board, where they’ll discuss his latest offer “as soon as the next few days.”
Reports indicate that Ratcliffe is willing to initially accept an ownership stake in the club of just 25%, and that has made his bid much more attractive to the Glazers, because it means that they would then remain on, certainly for awhile, in some capacity.
However, the reports claiming that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is having a meeting with MUFC leadership next week, and that his offer could be approved at the meeting are a bit….”aggressive.”
Or maybe you can say “jumping the gun” a bit. There has been oodles and oodles of misinformation and disinformation when it comes to the MUFC bidding war, so it is hard to really know what to believe.
One journalist who is very reliable and trust-worthy is David Ornstein, of The Athletic.
He says there has been movement on the takeover saga, and that the movement is towards Ratcliffe.
Ornstein said, during a Q&A for The Athletic:
“We’re getting question after question on this. I’m assured there has been movement and, contrary to reports that it going the way of Sheikh Jassim, I keep hearing that INEOS taking a minority stake and building from there remains more likely.
“That said, I was previously being told it’s going to Sheikh Jassim! This shows either the momentum keeps swinging or that none of us really know. Perhaps even the Glazers don’t know.”
Notice how he also said, no one really knows. Maybe that is true that even the Glazers don’t really know at this point!
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.