Man Utd takeover in doubt as Glazers step in with demand for bidders

The Glazers are reportedly refusing to budge on their £6billion asking price for Manchester United, throwing a full sale into major doubt. The Glazers announced in November that they were looking for new investment at United, including a possible full sale.

After months of speculation, things started to heat up this month with interest from Qatar, the US and the rest of the Middle East. British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe became the first to publically express an interest in buying United.

Potential buyers were then given a ‘soft deadline’ of 10pm on February 17 by Raine Group, who are overseeing the sale of United on behalf of the Glazers. Official bids were then launched on Friday, first by Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani.

That was then followed by a fresh proposal from Ratcliffe, the CEO of INEOS with both bids said to be worth £5bn. But that’s still a whopping £1bn short of what the Glazers are asking for in a full sale and The Sun claim they’re not willing to accept anything less.

An insider said: “It’s still not clear if the Glazers actually want to sell and — if they do — it will only be for top dollar. It’s possible they are keener on a partial sale rather than a full one at this stage — as that might value the club higher.

“What is obvious is that they want to maximise their profits by selling at their preferred price or not at all. The other possibility nobody is discounting is they will simply decide that none of the bids is anywhere near what they want and call it off, in the hope that the market conditions change in their favour in a year or so.”

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