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Yeah I agree re FSG. Though I’d suggest the FSG model only works when you have an elite coach so with them now staying, Liverpool badly need Klopp to get the side back to where it was.
Oh it’s a very real possibility that the Glazers stick around. It’s always been speculated about that an option is for Joel and Avram to buy the other siblings out.
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Not sure this Qatari bid is related to the Emir. It’s a similar surname, but I think that’s quite common.
Interestingly the Qatari’s are big in horse racing over here and there’s no angst about that.
Shows the state of football when you need to be that rich to consider takeovers nowadays.
Any qatari bid will be complicated and I wouldn’t want the club to be a mechanism for sport washing, hope it is private investors rather than the state in a different name.
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But doesn’t it all link back to the royal family Alfie mate? Miguel Delaney says the utd take over coukd be the biggest example of sports washing we have ever seen.
I just don’t get why Neville was so out spoken about it but now says nothing. Also there should be no block in utd being bought by such owners. City and Newcastle got them so why not utd.
I think most sensible fans don’t want state owned owners Ed but we are all fickle and would still support the team. To me it makes no massive difference to utd as they spend millions every summer. They have the pick of the elite players and can still attract huge names like casemerio with cl football. They pay huge wages already
The new owners will vastly improve all the infrastructure etc. utds titles wiukd not be tarnished as they already one if the biggest clubs in Europe. It is different to Newcastle and city but opposing fans will still tarnish them with the same brush as Newcastle and city
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Totally agree about fsg model Ed. When Klopp goes we are absolutely snookered. I like them but they need to give him 250 net tgis summer. We have spent money but it’s no we’re near the other clubs. Since we won the cl , West Ham, villa and Leeds have all out sept us
Our biggest asset was selling average players for mad money. We a sports director in by the summer. We need 2 midfielders and a cb. I firmly believe Klopp will get us going again next season. We may have left it a bit to late to get going this season
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I’m not sure anyone knows just yet Sean. He is the chairman of a bank, the money could well come from the bank but I don’t think there is any firm stance on who owns the bank.
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This is in the Athletic this morning Sean so who knows
And The Athletic has spoken to one Gulf expert who agrees.
“I wouldn’t necessarily see this as a ‘Qatari’ bid,” says Gerd Nonneman, a professor of international relations and Gulf studies at Georgetown University in Qatar.
“Sheikh Jassim doesn’t hold any government positions, nor, indeed, has his father done for many years. Much of the son’s fortune is based on his father’s wealth, which is thought to run into the billions, further enhanced by his own involvement in QIB and other business ventures.
“So, contrary to the investments in Bayern Munich (a Qatar Airways sponsorship deal) or PSG, which were done by entities that were largely funded by the state and/or very senior members of the ruling family, this case is different.
“Of course, we don’t know who else, apart from HBJ, might have a stake in Sheikh Jassim’s Nine Two investment vehicle, but there doesn’t seem to be any controlling stake by any government entity of any of the actual ruling group.”
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It’s an absolute fact that this wouldn’t be State ownership per se, whichever way you angle it. That there is state involvement is very much open to conjecture but the insistence from Qatar is this is very much not a State bid.
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As you say Sean,it wouldn’t make a huge difference to what we spend on players but the simple fact we’d no longer have no much money taken out of the club and could compete with the top clubs on facilities, stadium, youth investment would mean we’d be able to compete for the likes of Haaland, Bellingham etc. Currently, we’ve absolutely no chance of getting that kind of player. Casemiro, Varane etc don’t come to us in their prime, they come when they’re reaching an age where Madrid deem them sellable.
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The “technicality” won’t stop the fact that United would be a sports washing vehicle for Qatar or that the money snd association is all Qatari with the same human rights and everything else
Might feel better to say it’s not state owned but it’s only not in name otherwise no difference at all for me and exactly the same and should be treated the same as Newcastle city and psg 😁_____________________________
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Why stop at City, Newcastle and PSG Steve? If it’s all just the same because you’ve decided it is, then I’ll put Arsenal in that group too for their Emirates sponsorship 😁
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Keep forgetting Emirates sponser the library… 🙂
At least my mighty Cock’s are completely innocent of any wrong doings…
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Just wait Chucky till they get their hands on your lot 😁. We all know Qatar and Levy have been talking.
Look, I’ll be really disappointed if Qatar do buy Utd and it indeed proves to be state ownership masquerading as private investment. I am massively against this kind of ownership and don’t want my club being used as a tool for a state to wash clean it’s image. If that happens, I wish I could be strong-willed enough to stop supporting them in protest but I just dont think I could. Utd fans have a history of protesting against potential (bskyb) and actual (Glazers) owners despite successful periods (or the promise of in the case of the former) under them. If that indeed happens, I can only say that the club would deserve all the criticism coming its way and those Utd fans who oppose this kind of ownership will need to do what we’ve been doing the past 20 years and be able to separate club and owner whilst continuing to speak our against the ownership. That hasn’t been done anywhere near enough by City, PSG, Newcastle and Arsenal IMO.
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None of us choose who owns our clubs bit we absolutely can choose how we react and speak about that ownership/sponsorship. It’s a sad state of affairs that football has become this state playground which now has fans comparing owner net worths instead of trophies.
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United share prices have slumped after interest from a US investment firm.
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No doubt there will be a Panorama special on the Qatari bid should it look like it will go through. They’ll get to the bottom of it.
For the record, I am against state ownership but not fussed if a Qatari resident wants to buy the club. Would prefer Ratcliffe, as a local man, but you cannot choose your owners. As a few have said already, I think either way that this is slightly different to other wealthy owners as the club should be able to just spend their own money without the need for owners to pump money in to spend on players.
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Ed – I don’t think it’s fair to blame those fans of other clubs for not speaking out. Let’s not pretend man utd fans are bastians of justice. I’m not a betting man, but if the Qatari’s are successful in purchasing man utd, and pump money in all corners of the club, let the club keep it’s profits, and attain success on the pitch. I highly doubt there will be protests against them from the fanbase, if it then turns out it is state ownership or owners are complicit in one atrocity or another. They’ll just be happy to be sat at the big boy table, and will be as insufferably smug as ever.
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I think fans of all clubs are exactly the same DH, no one has better fans than anyone else, contrary to popular belief.
I can only speak for myself, and do not want my club to be involved in sportwashing, as other PL clubs are being used, and have been used in the past.
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After 18 years, the war against the Glazers is finally nearing an end. But Manchester United fans are sleepwalking into a new fight for the soul of the club against a foe far more fearsome than a single family. One that many don’t even recognise yet as the enemy.
The Glazers selling up is undoubtedly good news for United. The end of their lecherous reign ought to be relished. But amid the celebrations, the club and its supporters seem to be taking a far more casual, wait-and-see approach over their potential new owners. The worry is, wait and see too long and the keys to Old Trafford will already be in the wrong hands. Specifically, the grip of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Sheikh Jassim is one of two front-runners to buy United, the other being Sir Jim Ratcliffe. We know very few specifics of the bids placed before the Glazers other than the PR lines spouted from the rival bidders’ camps. It almost doesn’t matter. Any individual or group with sufficient wealth to buy Manchester United ought to be treated with suspicion.
That suspicion is manifesting itself in peculiar ways, certainly online and on social media, where the previous unity among the United fanbase fed by their common enemy has given way to intense and often spiteful splits while supporters pick one of two hastily-painted red corners: that of the British billionaire or the state of Qatar.
Let’s be clear here, it is Qatar that is coming for Manchester United. Sheikh Jassim is the face with a profile and bank balance large enough to appear a legitimate purchaser, but not so grand as to prompt awkward questions over who is really driving the bid.
It seems to have worked on many supporters, mainly those prepared to turn a blind eye to almost anything in return for star signings. The rest should be pushing back harder against the possibility of Manchester United falling into the hands of an oil state, the very real prospect of one of football’s grandest institutions being used to launder a nation’s reputation.
If you’re not sure why Qatar is so keen to divert your attention and sentiment, you haven’t being paying enough attention in recent months. Here, courtesy of Amnesty International, are just six things you ought to know.
Cue the whataboutery. Pro-Qatar United fans whine that the takeovers of Newcastle and Manchester City didn’t prompt the same moral outrage – they absolutely did, certainly in Newcastle’s case – while Toon and City fans demand that United be subjected to the same scrutiny and criticism, often simultaneously highlighting just how and why sportswashing works.
Qatar tried it with the World Cup and, to an extent, it worked. Concerns over the rights of workers, women, the LGBTQ+ community were raised, despite FIFA’s best efforts to suppress them, and issues were highlighted. Then almost unanimously ignored. Those conversations, though, have led some pro-Qatar United supporters, as well as some Newcastle fans, to claim that the clubs can help further those causes from the inside. Which, at best, is disingenuous horsesh*t.
Some individuals may be able to park their morals for the cost of a new centre-forward but clubs, community and global institutions, absolutely should not. And, perhaps more galling than it is relevant, Manchester United have absolutely no need.
Newcastle, City, even PSG before they were taken over in 2011, all needed investment. Each was ripe for it, which PIF, ADUG and QSI were smart enough to identify while being rich enough to capitalise.
United simply do not need such state-backed transformation to compete, nor does the club require a sugar daddy, especially when they have a proper manager to steer the team back towards the top of the table. Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp, demonstrated that too. And, even more so than Liverpool, United can pay its own way at the high-rollers tables, especially when it isn’t being used as a cash machine for the six spawn of a Florida-based billionaire. Football 365 Ian Watson
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On the sportswashing aspect, it’s not far wrong Nine that article. If indeed it turns out to be a state ownership, which is far from as concrete as the article suggests, then it’s spot on. I find it a tad contradictive though. The last paragraph is accurate in saying that Utd don’t need a sugar daddy. They simply need an owner who doesn’t take a billion and a half out of the club. It’s that simple.
It seems to have worked on many supporters, mainly those prepared to turn a blind eye to almost anything in return for star signings.
To then suggest that those opposed to state ownership would be swayed into no longer opposing them because of new players coming in? What, those new players which the club have earned the right to buy through decades and decades of history and success? Those players? If we get star signings, it will not be because of state ownership. A nice idea, the article, but it’s very much missed the point. To suggest we’d have the Qatar ownership to thank for star players joining the club (and ultimately anti-Qatar fans would therefore turn a blind eye) is, frankly, a joke. It’s like saying we should thank Qatar for such a good World Cup. The World Cup was a great WC despite the Qataris not because of them, just as good players would continue to join us after any possible Qatari ownership just as they have done before. Did Utd fans stop protesting against and turn a blind eye to the Glazers when we were successful under their ownership or when we bought good players under their ownership? Absolutely not. The protests have continued all through the successful years and beyond. There will be a generation of fans, and I’ve always said this, that don’t care one bit who owns the club and that will always be the case. But, to suggest those opposing state ownership would be swayed by a new player coming in suggests the writer is not at all clued up on how the fanbase works.
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It will be a side day for English football if one of the Granddaddy’s of the game end up being part of a sports washing campaign… it’s bad enough those silly little Micky Mouse clubs get suckered into it, but YooUtd? It would be hard to think of a sadder day in English football if that happens…
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