Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman has claimed that Manchester United owners, the Glazers family, are set to announce the club’s sale at £7.2 billion-7.3 billion ($9.19-9.32 billion). If his claims are true, it will make the acquisition the most expensive in sporting history.
Manchester United’s sale has been a lengthy process
In November 2022, the Glazers announced that they were open to offers for the Premier League giants. Following multiple rounds of bidding, Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe have emerged as the two leaders in the takeover race.
Now, it has been claimed that the Sheikh has come out on top, courtesy of his world record £7.2 billion-7.3 billion bid. Speaking to the BBC, Dalman spoke about the rising cost of football clubs, revealing that United had found its new owner. He said:
“I’ve been meeting a lot with US private equity funds and the valuation of football clubs is going through the roof. Americans are determined to come into this market quite heavily.
“I spoke to the owners of Leeds when we were there, and Championship clubs are valued at three times their revenue, give or take. Manchester United are going to announce their sale at £7.2bn-7.3bn, which is roughly 10 times their revenue.”
He concluded by adding:
“Two or three years ago, we might have been talking about selling Cardiff for about £20m or £30m but now you’re going to have to look at £90m or £100m. Valuations [of Championship clubs] have all stretched. In terms of the money burned, you have a better chance of getting it back in this environment than you ever have before.”
In August The Sun claimed that the Sheikh had indeed won the race for United. However, a fee of £6 billion ($7.66 billion) was quoted at the time, considerably less than Dalman’s claims.
New Man United owners would have limited impact on the ongoing season
Even if Manchester United makes an official announcement in the coming days, the new owners would not be able to make much of an impact on the ongoing season. The Glazers, who have been the club’s owners since 2005, have already signed some players and appointed personnel as they saw fit. It is unlikely that the new owners would switch things around too much and risk tampering with the stability of the team, especially now that the new Premier League season is already underway.
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