Private / SME
“Is there more” is a slogan raised by the American owners of Manchester United, who are promoting their club aggressively to attract new, richer owners to compete for their golden prize, which Qatar will soon seize with great tenderness and determination.
As the deal of 6 billion pounds sterling will be settled, this Friday evening, after the arrival of sealed bids from the competitors to the owners of Manchester United in New York.
And it seems that the entry of Saudi Arabia, which took over the financial matters related to the files of the English club sale deal, has entered strongly on the line of competition, which is expected to be decided in favor of the Qatari sovereign fund, “QIA”, which has won everyone’s confidence so far, especially after its successful organization in the World Cup. World 2022, pumping hundreds of billions to build the World Cup clubs, in addition to the organization, equipment, procedures and measures to secure this great event, especially with Qatar’s recognition of developing and supporting Manchester to reach the summit, and put it on the right track.
However, it seems that Saudi Arabia, which is planning to organize the World Cup 2030, is seeking to seize this major prize, which will enrich the Saudi sports entity at home and abroad, especially after it succeeded in attracting the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo to ignite the competition in the Saudi League, and turn the lights into a green carpet inside the Kingdom’s stadiums, in light of The efforts of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, may God protect him, to advance the sports sector in the Kingdom and turn it into a global destination, especially after the £300 million deal in Newcastle, which SME News exclusively reported months ago.
The British have always expressed their objection to Arab interference in the sports sector, which they consider an icon of European sports, and which has followers from the whole world, led by Emir Tamim, the Emir of Qatar, who loves Manchester United, even the international filmmakers who were keen to honor the name of the club in their famous films.
Here comes the role of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the richest man in the United Kingdom, and its dark horse in winning the gold award, as Ratcliffe owns the giant petrochemical company Ineos. And he is backed by the most powerful British banks. Despite his love for Manchester United from an early age, he seems interested in other sports, so he bought cycling giants Team Sky, which has now been renamed Team Ineos, and he also owns a large stake in Mercedes F1 for Formula One racing, so He is a seasoned businessman who knows how to eat the shoulder, and has very successful experiences in sports investment.
An armed man came this time with great insistence and an amount of 21 billion pounds sterling for this auction, with the support of British banks, led by Goldman Sachs.
Elon Musk enters the competition
Many considered that the billionaire Elon Musk, a fan of Manchester United, who owns thousands of communications satellites, and who became famous strongly at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war last year, is the golden horse in this race or the ball that will decide the chess game in this strong match, as he owns The technology billionaire, as they call him, has an estimated fortune of 157 billion pounds, and also owns Twitter and Tesla, and is supported by Jeff Bezos, owner of the famous Amazon company, who is on the list of the world’s richest people with an estimated fortune of 100 billion pounds.
This alliance may weaken the attempts of China and Singapore to acquire this deal, as well as the American owners of Liverpool FC, who are aggressively seeking to buy Manchester United or part of it.
Deal features
The winning horse will receive the annual revenue of the club, which is estimated at 600 million pounds sterling, according to expectations for the year 2021-2022, in addition to a torrent of followers on social media, which reaches 658 million followers all over the world, equivalent to a tenth of the population of the blue planet.
The value of the team is estimated at 759 million pounds sterling, which the new owners, especially the Qataris, expected to raise this value during the coming years with the required support and care.
While the value of the major prizes that the club has obtained since winning the first league title in 1908 until now is estimated at 45 million pounds sterling,
Defects
The current Glazer owners neglected to pay the club’s debts, which are estimated at 515 billion pounds sterling, so the new owners will have to fulfill this debt, which the Glazer family has neglected since its purchase of the English club in 2005, which is very unpopular inside Britain, especially after the outcome of its debts zero.
And not only debts are the only obstacle in the way of the new owners, but they have to develop the stadium itself to raise the club’s capacity to 76,000 seats and related services at a value of one billion pounds sterling, or construct a new stadium, which will raise the cost of buying the expensive lands surrounding the club. sources
