MANCHESTER, England — A Qatar-based bid for Manchester United was confirmed Friday, with Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani promising to rid the enduring soccer membership of debt and return it to its former glories.

Sheikh Jassim, chairman of Qatar Islamic Financial institution, has submitted a 100% provide to purchase out present house owners, the Glazer household. He’s the son of a former prime minister.

“The bid can be fully debt free through Sheikh Jassim’s 9 Two Basis, which is able to look to put money into the soccer groups, the coaching heart, the stadium and wider infrastructure, the fan expertise and the communities the membership helps,” a press release stated.

“The imaginative and prescient of the bid is for Manchester United Soccer Membership to be famend for footballing excellence, and thought to be the best soccer membership on the planet.”

It didn’t point out what the bid could be.

Whereas plans to put money into the Premier League workforce and redevelop Outdated Trafford can be effectively obtained by followers, there may be more likely to even be opposition after Qatar was closely criticized for its remedy of migrant staff and human rights report forward of internet hosting final 12 months’s World Cup.

Previous to the Qatari announcement and with rumors of a possible rival bid from Saudi Arabia nonetheless circulating, Manchester United’s LGBTQ supporters’ group the Rainbow Devils raised “deep concern” concerning curiosity from nations the place same-sex relationships are criminalized.

“Rainbow Devils consider any bidder in search of to purchase Manchester United should commit to creating soccer a sport for everybody, together with LGBTQ+ supporters, gamers and employees,” the group stated on Twitter. “We subsequently have deep concern over among the bids which can be being made. We’re watching the present course of intently with this in thoughts.”

DEADLINE DAY

Friday was the ultimate day for critical contenders to step ahead within the race to purchase United, with the deadline expiring at 2200 GMT.

After months of hypothesis and hovering share costs, preliminary provides needed to be introduced to service provider financial institution Raine Group, which is dealing with the sale of probably the most well-known soccer groups on the planet.

By the tip of the day, the Glazers might need an concept of how a lot they’ll anticipate to make on the membership they purchased for about $1.4 billion in 2005.

The worth is now estimated to succeed in as excessive as $6 billion, with reported curiosity from Saudi Arabia seeing its worth rise sharply because the deadline for bids approached.

Whereas Friday was described as a tender deadline, Raine and the Glazers could have a clearer image of potential patrons earlier than shifting on to the subsequent stage of the method. The announcement from Sheikh Jassim comes after rising hypothesis about curiosity from the gasoline and oil wealthy Qatar.

It could possibly be troublesome to show Sheikh Jassim’s funding automobile is solely separate from state-backed pursuits that fund Qatar Sports activities Investments at PSG.

The sale of Manchester United is ready to check European guidelines designed to guard soccer from the integrity dangers of householders controlling a number of golf equipment.

RIVAL BID

Beforehand solely British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the proprietor of petrochemicals large INEOS, had publicly confirmed his intention to bid for the membership he has supported from childhood. BBC Sport stated it understood that Ineos had made a bid inside Friday’s deadline. There was no official affirmation from Ineos.

Together with Qatar and the reported curiosity from Saudi Arabia, rumors persist that Elon Musk could possibly be amongst an inventory of potential patrons from the USA.

Ratcliffe introduced his intention to bid final month. That may be a shift in technique from final 12 months when he launched a last-minute bid for Chelsea, however was not thought-about as a result of he missed the deadline set by Raine, which additionally dealt with that sale.

Ratcliffe, who at the moment owns French membership Good, final 12 months stated he had no real interest in one other bid for a Premier League membership after lacking out on Chelsea and receiving little encouragement from the Glazers for United. However he could be a well-liked alternative amongst followers due to his longstanding assist of the membership.

A number of Individuals bid final 12 months to purchase Chelsea, with Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ultimately paying $3 billion for the London membership. Rival bids got here from Chicago Cubs proprietor the Ricketts household, Boston Celtics part-owner Steve Pagliuca and New York Jets proprietor Woody Johnson.

No American bids for United have been made public, except you take into account a Twitter submit from Musk.

The CEO of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX wrote “I’m shopping for Manchester United ur welcome” final August. And though he then identified it was a “long-running joke on Twitter,” rumors of a bid haven’t gone away.

Third-place Manchester United hosts Leicester within the Premier League on Sunday with its supervisor insisting the developments is not going to function a distraction to him or his gamers.

“I give attention to soccer,” Erik ten Hag stated.

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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Extra AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports