What's Really Stopping The Manchester United Takeover
Despite announcing their intention to sell last year, the Glazer family still haven't completed the sale of Manchester United. With constant conflicting stories about the status of bids from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar's Sheikh Jassim, what's really stopping it from happening?
Transcript
00:00 In November of last year, Manchester United owners the Glazer family announced they were
00:07 considering selling the club as part of "exploring strategic alternatives".
00:12 Given the group's almost unanimous unpopularity with the club's fanbase, the news was greeted…
00:17 let's say warmly.
00:18 However, while nobody expected a speedy conclusion to the sale of one of football's biggest
00:22 and therefore most expensive clubs, almost nine months on from that the Glazers remain
00:27 in charge.
00:28 Despite plenty of claims and counterclaims, no deal has been agreed and Manchester United
00:32 enter the new season under an enormous cloud of uncertainty.
00:36 This is why the Manchester United takeover still hasn't happened.
00:40 Not to spoil the end of this video for you, but if you've seen Succession, then well,
00:44 you're halfway there.
00:51 With each passing week comes another claim that a breakthrough is on the horizon for
00:54 this deal.
00:55 And with each passing week, fans are left frustrated at the lack of anything of the
00:59 sort.
01:00 Anyway, right now on the table are two competing bids.
01:03 The first is led by this man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
01:06 Born and failed with Greater Manchester, Ratcliffe is a British billionaire, engineer and chairman
01:11 of chemical giants INEOS, reported to be the second richest man in the UK.
01:15 His net worth, at last estimate, is of almost £30 billion.
01:19 As a person, he's a figure that appeals strongly to the majority of Manchester United
01:23 fans, but his bid includes an option for two of the Glazers to remain at Old Trafford.
01:28 Avram and Joel Glazer could then be poised to stay on as minority stakeholders if this
01:32 bid is accepted, which would see them continue to invest in the club without the power to
01:37 make key decisions.
01:38 Not a concept that's proving universally popular, but possibly a necessity given the
01:42 way the deal is being financed.
01:44 On the other side of this issue is Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Sani, who has been leading
01:49 a Qatari consortium throughout the entire takeover process and wants to purchase a 100%
01:54 stake in Manchester United and all its assets.
01:58 Entirely funded by the Sheikh's 9-2 Foundation, this sale would allegedly leave the club debt-free
02:03 and allow them to "look to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium
02:08 and the wider infrastructure, the fan experience and the communities the club supports."
02:12 This would bring a complete end to the near 20 years of Glazer ownership, dating back
02:16 to their own takeover in 2005, and it would also allegedly wipe the club's debts estimated
02:21 to be around the £490 million mark.
02:24 The idea here that Manchester United would cease to be a work in progress almost overnight
02:29 and could then immediately start competing again with the biggest teams in Europe.
02:33 Fans understandably are divided.
02:35 For some, after years of deriding rivals Man City over their state-sponsored ownership
02:40 model, the idea of becoming the plaything of an oil state themselves leaves a bitter
02:44 taste.
02:45 At the same time, there's a reality over what it now takes to compete at the very top
02:49 level, and if that's the only way they can fully remove the Glazers, then so be it.
02:53 And while Ratcliffe might personally represent a far more palatable owner, there are question
02:58 marks over how his deal would be financed and what spending power it would actually
03:01 give the club.
03:02 That, combined with the idea of the Glazers remaining involved in some capacity, makes
03:06 it a complete non-starter for sections of the support.
03:10 Full sale only banners spotted towards the end of last season.
03:13 And that's all without even getting into the accusations that there's involvement
03:17 in the Qatari bid from PSG's owners, or that it might contain a level of state involvement
03:21 that would ultimately see the Premier League forced to reject it.
03:24 But this whole issue of the preferred bidder, be that between the fans or the board, is
03:28 only able to rumble on though because of a lack of any substantial development.
03:33 So what's the hold-up?
03:35 Well and this won't surprise Manchester United fans, the problem is the Glazers.
03:41 The breakdown of their ownership means that while Avram and Joel work as co-chairmen and
03:45 oversee the majority of the club's business, Kevin Glazer, Darcy Glazer, Edward Glazer
03:50 and Brian Glazer all retain between 10 and 20% of the voting power, and ultimately a
03:55 consensus is needed between them for any decision on this to be reached.
04:00 Reports behind the scenes have always indicated that Joel, who retains the largest stake at
04:04 nearly 20%, is determined to remain in charge with a new financial backer.
04:08 Avram, his brother, is willing to stay on in a similar capacity but is also open to
04:12 the idea of a full sale.
04:14 Between them though, they lack the ability to buy out their other four siblings and simply
04:19 make the decision themselves, and all of those are believed to only want to sell their remaining
04:23 shares if it enables them to get out completely.
04:26 Not to oversimplify this, but if you've ever tried to resolve a major issue between
04:31 six blood relatives and siblings at that, it's a wonder it's likely to be resolved
04:36 at all.
04:37 It's worth also keeping in mind that all six of these people are billionaire business
04:41 men and women, because they were born into being billionaire business men and women,
04:47 and not necessarily because any of them are any good at being billionaire business men
04:51 and women.
04:57 Even the wording of the proposed sale back in November was designed to leave room for
05:01 interpretation.
05:02 Exploring strategic alternatives certainly invites bids for the club, but it doesn't
05:07 necessarily commit you to actually selling it.
05:15 They had hoped, it's reported that they'd currently be considering a wealth of credible
05:19 offers, and thus able to negotiate a number of bidders into buying only the shares from
05:24 certain family members, leaving others to remain in place.
05:27 In a competitive field, there was confidence that someone would bite at that offer, but
05:31 with just the Ratcliffe and Qatari options available, neither side is willing to acquiesce
05:36 to this.
05:37 Thus, the last few months have seen multiple rounds of bidding between the two groups to
05:40 try and extract the highest possible price point for the club.
05:44 That's currently estimated to be approaching the £5 billion mark, and over the last few
05:48 weeks both groups have believed, and indeed briefed the press, that they were edging ahead
05:53 of the other.
05:54 But likewise, for all the presumptive, unverified and ultimately denied reports that a deal
05:58 with one party or the other is imminent, there's been an equal amount of column inches dedicated
06:02 to the question, "Do the Glazers even want to sell?"
06:06 The Times even going so far as to report that both bidders fully expected neither side to
06:11 have an offer accepted, and were both prepared to walk away, were certain deadlines not met.
06:22 So if you've read that the Glazers want to sell Man United, then yeah, that's true.
06:27 They do.
06:28 If you've also read that the Glazers actually don't want to sell Man United, then yeah,
06:32 that's true as well.
06:34 It's just that the Glazers, as a concept, represents the competing interests of six
06:38 conflicting individuals, all of which are changing with every passing week.
06:43 The bottom line here then, and it's one that becomes increasingly ridiculous as we
06:47 edge closer and closer to both a Premier League and Champions League campaign that Manchester
06:52 United are currently grossly underprepared for, is that there still hasn't been a resolution
06:57 to this sale because, as a group, the Glazers can't decide how they want to resolve it.
07:02 (upbeat music)
07:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]