The Glazers continue their search for new investment in Manchester United, with takeover bids tabled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassims
Manchester United manager Erik ten Haag previews the Bournemouth match
Avram Glazer has reportedly charged for two private jet flights to Manchester United in recent months, with the club’s majority shareholder allegedly spending £250,000 on separate trips to watch matches at Wembley Stadium.
The Athletic Report flight details – the first of which is a trip to watch the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in February, a game in which United won their first trophy for almost six years. The second is said to have been earlier this month, with a luxury trip to watch the club’s women’s team defeat Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
The flights were reportedly billed to United on both occasions, with the club’s accounts showing a cost of £250,000. The same bill was attributed to the flights on both occasions, bringing the total cost to £500,000, with the Glazers continued to do little to endear themselves to the club’s fans amid ongoing protests against their ownership.
However, such expenses, such as the £250,000 one-way trips to Wembley, will leave a bitter taste in the mouth, with fans footing the bill for such an expensive trip. The Manchester Evening News report that the club have increased season ticket prices for next season, citing “rising costs” as the reason, leaving questions to be asked as to why such a trip had to be made at such an expensive expense.
The Glazer family are expected to relinquish control of the club soon, with a takeover expected to take place at the end of the season. The final deadline in the bidding process is expected to be the end of May, with two bidders, Qatari billionaire Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe the remaining favourites.
Glazer attended Wembley.(
The Glazers have quoted an asking price of £6bn to take over the Red Devils, although this has been disputed as a valuation before. Raine Group is currently brokering a deal, with the US equity firm last year agreeing to take over Chelsea from Todd Boyley for £4.2bn.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire questioned their valuation of the club, he told Daily Mail : “When you look at the cash generated by the business, it’s nowhere near £6 billion. Last August, the market valued United at around £2 billion. It’s potentially worth double now, but any more and you really have to cross your fingers. scoring is more of an art than a science.
“You look at how much money the business is likely to make over the next 10 years and then you add some magic numbers. I did this with United and, being generous with the estimates, came to £2.8 billion. the way it would be worth close to £6 billion would be if you could take control of the broadcast rights and sell them yourself. As we saw with Project Big Picture, that’s not going to happen, so the numbers just don’t add up.”
Both bids are currently believed to be in the region of £5bn, with Sheikh Jassim offering further investment to clear the club’s debt, as well as investment in infrastructure and the local community. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe is understood to have opened up the possibility of the Glazer family staying on as a minority shareholder in a bid to seal a deal.
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