The past 24 hours at Old Trafford were marked by meetings with potential buyers of Manchester United. First, on Thursday, the Theater of Dreams was visited by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani with his delegation and stayed for almost 10 hours, a day later a similar meeting was held by one of the richest Britons, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.It’s not that close yet, but it is increasingly certain that the biggest dream of Manchester United fans will come true – that the Glazer family will leave the club after 18 years. According to reports from well-informed island media, the reign of the Glazers is slowly coming to an end, and the question is which of the two main candidates will take control of the club.After talks between two potential buyers with United’s leading men, the chances that another club from Manchester could also get owners from the Arabian Peninsula increased drastically. Unlike Manchester City, whose owners are from the United Arab Emirates, billionaires from Qatar are interested in United.##NAJAVA_MECA_7108023##The super-rich sheikh, otherwise the third son of the Emir of Qatar and owner of Paris Saint-Germain, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, was initially not ready to pay the price of almost 7,000,000,000 euros that the Glazers set when they decided to sell, but Sky Sports reports that the sheikh softened up after the meeting and that he is now ready to “overpay” the club to the American family! After the meeting on Friday, Ratcliffe has not yet decided whether he will go to the second round of bidding, although it is expected that he will. According to Sky sources from New York, sheikh Jassim wants to become the new owner of the club and is a sure participant in the next phase of negotiations, which should reportedly start next week.The sale of United, provided the Glazers are really serious about handing over the reigns, could happen at the end of the season, before the summer transfer window opens.The very fact that the sheikhs of his entourage stayed at the meeting in Manchester for as long as 10 hours, which is far more than planned, is a clear signal that the billionaires from Qatar are seriously “warming up” to the potential project. They have come to Old Trafford as fans before and the focus of yesterday’s meeting was to get a clear perspective on what they could get in return with possible investment in infrastructure, youth facilities and a women’s team. Of course, a lot of details went through before the new offer. As Sky claim, United must “sell the dream” to the sheikh to get full price.##EDITORS_CHOICE##The fact that the sheikh is ready to go above the set price does not automatically mean that everything is over. He is said to be quite cautious, that’s why he brought with him a whole team of financial, banking and legal experts to go over all the details with him before making a definitive decision.He knows the conditions in Great Britain very well, having been educated at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He is currently the chairman of QIB, one of the leading banks in Qatar.As for Ratcliffe, the 70-year-old billionaire and owner of Ineos flew into Manchester from Nice on Thursday and was photographed outside the stadium during the day, unlike the sheikh who wanted his arrival to go without public exposure.Football pundits in the UK see Ratcliffe’s move as a “contrast” to what sheikh Jassim has done. The owner of Nice is known as a big fan of Chelsea, last year he was one of the candidates to buy the club at the end of the Roman Abramovich era, but he withdrew from the race when he realized that the American Todd Boehly and his consortium would take over the club.Rumble for Old Trafford – Al Thani vs RatcliffeRatcliffe is the owner of the multinational chemical company Ineos, a season ticket holder for Chelsea matches, even though he was born in Manchester. His residence is in Chelsea, a wealthy part of West London. At one time, he was linked with the purchase of Newcastle and Leeds, and even Manchester United earlier. In addition to Nice, his company owns the Lausanne football club, is also a partner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team, and also has its own cycling team. He also invested in athletics, rugby and sailing…
