Sale Man Utd: Finnish businessman unveils offer

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By Webdesk


Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus said he has made a bid to buy Manchester United, with half the money being paid and the other half coming from the club’s fans.

Zilliacus, owner of Finnish champion HJK Helsinki, said his bid was submitted through XXI Century Capital, an investment firm owned by his holding company.

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“Every sports club should ultimately belong to its fans,” Zilliacus said in a statement on Thursday. “The current development, with billionaire sheikhs and oligarchs taking over clubs and controlling them as their personal playgrounds, is not a healthy trend.”

Manchester United’s current owners, the Glazer family, announced in November that they were looking at “strategic alternatives”, including investment or a full sale. Sources have told ESPN that the Gazers value the club at around £6 billion ($7.4 billion), which would be a record amount for a sports team.

The Raine Group, the investment bank that handles the lawsuit for the Glazer family, had set a deadline for submitting second bids on Wednesday. However, a number of potential buyers were adjourned Wednesday night, sources told ESPN.

Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman and CEO of chemical company INEOS, are the only bidders who have previously made their interest public.

Ratcliffe submitted a revised offer on Thursday, an INEOS spokesperson said in a statement. Sources said Sheikh Jassim is also ready to make a second offer.

However, Zilliacus, a former Nokia executive who also owns Finland’s ice hockey team Jokerit, says his new funding approach would allow fans to participate in the running of the Premier League giants.

“The club’s current market value is just under $3.9 billion,” said Zilliacus. “That means if all the club’s fans joined in to buy the club, the total amount per fan would be less than $6.

“My offer is based on equality with the fans. My group will finance half of the amount needed to take over the club and will ask the fans, through a new company set up for this specific purpose, to participate to the other half.If every fan participates, that means less than $3 per fan.

“Every fan who joins will have access to an app that the fan can use anywhere in the world to participate and vote in decisions on football matters affecting the club. No decisions will be made that are not supported by a majority of the fans.”

Man United claims to have 1.1 billion fans worldwide, based on a 2019 report from global market research firm Kantar.



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