An insider has revealed Sheikh Jassim’s stance on a new Manchester United purchase amid Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s difficulties at Old Trafford.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe won the battle for Manchester United towards the end of December last year following a lengthy process.
The British billionaire took a minority stake in the club but ensured full control of footballing operations – since then, it seems like his INEOS team are in charge of even more than that.
It has almost been a year since Ratcliffe and his team have taken charge. Many changes have happened and a lot of controversy has followed.
The latest decision to raise eyebrows has been the departure of Dan Ashworth as sporting director just a matter of months after he joined.
Increased ticket prices and wide-scale employee redundancies are among the other decisions from Ratcliffe’s team to anger fans.
Sheikh Jassim was the main competitor to Ratcliffe, with his Qatar consortium making several bids to completely buy the Glazer family out of the club which were ultimately unsuccessful.
There were promises to get rid of the debt the club have been placed under during Glazer ownership as well as building a new stadium.
While there were several reasons why they ended up pulling out of a potential deal, an insider has revealed that Sheikh Jassim remains open to buying United if the opportunity arises.
“Sheikh Jassim is still a rich guy. He is still a United fan. He is not going to rush off and try another Premier League club,” one senior adviser to the group told MailSport.
“If the opportunity to buy the whole of Manchester United arose again at some point in the future it is hard to see there not being a big level of interest. The plans are still there.”
Ratcliffe remains a minority shareholder at Old Trafford and has little control at the moment if someone wanted to take over the Glazer shares.
It had been previously reported that the new co-owner planned to eventually take over the Glazer family’s shares but any such reports have gone quiet since he came in.
INEOS will be hoping that they can improve the situation at Old Trafford themselves and turn fan-view around after some underwhelming months and questionable decisions.
Despite those difficulties, many fans would remain against Sheikh Jassim taking over the club, just as they were when he was still an option in the takeover process.
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