When Manchester United’s owner revealed in November 2022 that they were exploring “strategic alternatives to enhance the club’s growth”, in the eyes of the fans that read ‘sale’. In reality, they needed cash, either through sale or through additional investment, which eventually happened with Sir Jim Ratcliffe becoming the minority owner, defeating his only opponent – Qatari sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani. His bid was for full control of United and promised to clear the club’s borrowings. The BBC reported that his bid was worth 5 billion pounds, but at one point, he decided to call it quits. And now a part of the story was revealed.Ratcliffe admits that Manchester’s culture is ‘not set up for success’Many United fans eventually questioned Al Thani’s wealth and wondered if he could provide the funds if he really bought the club, but the official confirmation was that the price was too high, and he thought that he would overpay in the end. The in-depth information was provided by Joe Ravitch, the co-founder of Raine – who was appointed to supervise the sales process by the owners, the Glazer Family.”We met Jassim. He was in New York. He’s a lovely guy; a very smart guy. The Qataris were very real. They were very smart guys, very thoughtful. I don’t know why they didn’t appreciate the value of the club but we were not their adviser. We tried as the seller to explain the value to them, and they put what they thought was a series of very serious bids on the table” said Ravitch in an interview with The Times.Here we go again – Sheikh Jassim has had enough, steps away from Man UtdRavitch went on to explain that the sale of an NFL team in the USA upped the value of Manchester United.”My clients, the Glazers are also smart guys. We thought the value would be around 5 billion pounds, so we were kind of spot on with regards to where Ratcliffe ended up. But when the Washington Commanders went for 6 billion dollars, we all thought: ‘Well, United is the most important sports team in the world; more than a billion fans. The Commanders own one 32nd of the NFL. Their economics are severely limited by the commercial sharing caps placed on it by the league. We know that because the Glazers also own a NFL team. Therefore if someone is willing to pay six billion for the Commanders, someone should be willing to pay more for United” he explained.Qatari media claim Sheik al-Thani will win the bidding war for UnitedCo-founder of Raine Group bank revealed that the Qatar sheikh was very close to actually buying the club at the valued price, but eventually thought he would overpay and quit.”I think the Qataris got to about 5.75 billion dollars. We said to them, ‘You’re within 10 per cent, why don’t you get in a room and try to get to a deal.’ But they said no. I think they were very conscious of criticism if they were seen to be overpaying. Ultimately we think they would have been good owners but we think the Glazers made the right decision not to take the lesser value, and go with Ratcliffe instead” he explained.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE1/8 finals – second legTuesdayBayern – Lazio 3-0 (2-0)/Kane 38, 66, Muller 45+2/Bayern win 3-1 on aggregateReal Sociedad – Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 (0-1)/Merino 89 – Mbappe 15, 56/Paris Saint-Germain win 4-1 on aggregateWednesdayReal Madrid – RB Leipzig 1-1 (0-0)/Vinicius 65 – Orban 68/Real Madrid win 2-1 on aggregateMan.City – Copenhagen 3-1 (2-1)/Akanji 5, Alvarez 9, Haaland 45+3 – Elyounoussi 29/Manchester City win 6-2 on aggregateTuesday the 12th23:00: (1.77) Barcelona (3.60) Napoli (4.80) /first leg 1-1/23:00: (1.28) Arsenal (5.70) Porto (10.5) /first leg 0-1/Wednesday the 13th23:00: (3.05) Atl.Madrid (3.30) Inter (2.55) /first leg 0-1/23:00: (2.15) Dortmund (3.50) PSV (3.30) / first leg 1-1/***odds are subject to change***
