Manchester United could be sold before the end of the season, with the Glazer family, who have owned the club for the last 18 years, recently receiving revised bids in the second round of offers for the club.
Three parties are said to have made proposals for a full takeover of the club, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS firm and Sheikh Jassim’s Qatari consortium at the forefront of proceedings.
As things stand, UEFA rules prohibit two clubs with the same owner to face each other in their competitions, meaning that Qatar Sports Investments, who own Paris Saint-Germain and a minority stake in Portuguese club Braga, face that challenge if they attempt to prize the Glazers away from Old Trafford.
QSI were handed a surprising boost in their supposed wish of acquiring United earlier this month, however. It emerged that UEFA were now considering making changes to that rule, via The Times, which could see the same owners own more than one club.
That opens up an avenue for QSI to own PSG and United simultaneously, as well as introduce other clubs to their franchise. And according to reports, that’s exactly what they are planning to do.
That’s according to the Daily Record, who say that QSI are planning to place United at the top of their footballing pyramid in a move that would see PSG, United, Braga and potentially Spanish side Malaga fall under the same ownership.
As per the report, QSI see the benefit of using Braga as a potential development club for PSG and United. A pathway to either club would be for exciting talents to sign for Braga to gain first-team experience before making the big move.
It remains to be seen how all of this unfolds but it’s certainly an interesting twist. As things stand, all three of the clubs mentioned above are on course to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
There are, however, no guarantees that the Glazer family will relinquish control of the club before the start of next season and it will all depend on whether their valuation is met.
At the time of writing, it does not appear that any of the bids in the second round of negotiations have been convincing enough for a sale to advance to the most critical stage.
This is not good for Football but obviously for the owners if the Qatari bid is successful. They are collecting Clubs like children collect Football Cards. Relaxing the two Club ownership in European Competitions smacks of corruption. Money and more money talks to these people usually my money says goodbye, theirs says welcome to the club.
Wow
UEFAs rule is rubbish already as Red Bull have Salzburg and Leipzig who could play each other in major competitions and if FC Liefering who are currently in the second tier in Austria got promoted they could possibly have three teams facing each other. UEFA are just trying to make things hard for UTD as usual.