While rumors that the offer from Qatar could win in the race to buy the club from Manchester United multiply, the American billionaire Jim Ratcliffe estimated Wednesday evening that his offer was “good” and assured that he remained “very focused” on this acquisition.
“We (submitted) a good offer. We met the (owners of Manchester United, the family) Glazer several times and had good exchanges, but in the end, it is up to them to decide,” said the billionaire, according to the English press, during the presentation of a book on the 25 years of the petrochemical group Ineos which he founded.
In recent weeks, the press had echoed unsourced rumors claiming that the Glazers were about to enter into exclusive negotiations with the president of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Sheikh Jassim Ben Hamad al- Thani, Ratcliffe’s rival.
The Qatari banker wants to take full control of the club for a record sum estimated at 6.5 billion euros, while Ratcliffe, who already owns French teams Nice in Ligue 1 and Lausanne in Switzerland, wants to take control with a majority stake, but alongside minority shareholders which could include Joel and Avram Glazer, co-presidents of the club.
Launched in November, the sales process drags on but without tiring Ratcliffe.
“We still really want (to buy the club). I also think we would do a good job there and for the right reasons,” he said in an allusion to the geopolitical motivations of investments from the Gulf countries in football, while he has been a United supporter since. childhood.
“We don’t make clubs like Manchester United anymore,” he continued, “it’s like art or that sort of thing that (…) continues to increase in value over time because ’they are very special and rare’.
He also made foot calls to supporters who for years have taken a dislike to the Glazers, who arrived in 2005 at the head of the club, ensuring that they were not “there to make money” and guaranteeing that, s he took charge of the club, Old Trafford would not be the subject of a naming contract giving him the name of his company Ineos.
“My God no ! That would be heresy!” he cried.
