Sheikh Jassim will make a second bid for Manchester United on Wednesday after a Qatari team visited Old Trafford for talks last week, British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe also held meetings last week but won't pay a "stupid" price for club; More bidders are expected to visit next week
Wednesday 22 March 2023 10:13, UK
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS delegation have been described as impressive and sophisticated in their approach to buying Manchester United.
It is felt they made a very good impression when they visited the club last Friday with INEOS set to make a new bid before Wednesday's 9pm deadline.
The Glazer family will definitely sell the club but only for the right price. If their asking price - believed to be £6bn - is not met, they will raise capital to invest in the club and pay down debt.
More than five bids will be made for Man Utd before the deadline for second offers - and there could be as many as eight.
Based on the level of first-round bids, there are no favourites at the moment although one could emerge after Wednesday's deadline.
It should not be discounted that the Glazers will keep control of United by agreeing a minority deal, with the team's performances improving dramatically and a new strategy now in place.
Selling United will not be an easy decision for them to make as the club is rarely available to buy and it's unlikely to come on the market for at least another 20 years.
The visit of Sheikh Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani's delegation and Sir Jim Ratcliffe last Thursday and Friday respectively grabbed the headlines but several other interested parties have visited the club during the past two weeks - and more bidders are also likely to visit next week.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he will not pay a "stupid" price for Manchester United.
The INEOS chief executive and his team spent six hours at Old Trafford and Carrington last week with meetings finishing at about 4pm.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the 70-year-old said: "How do you decide the price of a painting? How do you decide the price of a house? It's not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint.
"What you don't want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently."
However, Ratcliffe, who already owns French club Nice, said his interest in United would be "purely in winning things", calling the club a "community asset".
Ratcliffe, 70, was photographed outside Old Trafford after meeting club executives - unlike Sheikh Jassim, who did not visit Manchester personally the previous day.
But sources in the US say talks last Thursday in Manchester between Sheikh Jassim's Qatari delegation and United executives were positive.
His advisers are now working on putting together a new bid which is expected to be submitted by close of business on Wednesday.
It was previously understood the Qatari bidders were determined not to pay over the odds for the club, but that stance has softened in recent days coinciding with a delegation's visit to Old Trafford.
A Qatari delegation travelled to Manchester from London by train and received a warm welcome. Talks were held across 10 hours - a lot longer than expected.
Sheikh Jassim and members of his team had been to Old Trafford as fans before, and the focus of this visit was to get a perspective on what they could do with their capital investment regarding infrastructure, youth development and the women's team.
Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
"If someone comes along and offers £6bn-£7bn, then the Raine Group and the Glazers look at that and say, 'you know what, these people have made such a good bid, we're going to give them exclusivity'. That means they get access to all the books, nobody else does, and they look to tie up a deal to sell the club to them.
"If that happens, Wednesday could be the beginning of the end. But what's much more likely is that five bids, maybe as many as eight, will go in, and there'll be a third stage of bidding as well. I think it'll be whittled down again and this will keep on running for another few weeks.
"I still think it won't be done until the end of the season, the beginning of the transfer window, and the Glazers could well stay at the club.
"They might look at all the offers and say, 'that's not good enough, we think Man Utd is worth a lot more, especially in the future,' so they just send a minority stake to a hedge fund or an investment company, and use the money to pay off some of the debt, do up Old Trafford or the training ground a little bit, and stay in control. I was told on Tuesday morning not to discount that as a possibility - it could still happen."
