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Bid wildly! Britain's richest man vs Qatari tycoon: who is the ideal owner of Manchester United?

On 17 February, formal written offers for Manchester United were closed, with Britain's richest man Ratcliff and Qatar Islamic Bank chairman Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani publicly announcing the takeover. Although the British media revealed that there are other buyers from Saudi Arabia, the United States and other places, there is no doubt that they are the main competitors.

Bid wildly! Britain's richest man vs Qatari tycoon: who is the ideal owner of Manchester United?

Who are they

Sir James Ratcliffe, 70 years old, is the boss of the Ineos Group, the famous "chemical king" in the UK, who was the richest man in the UK for a long time, and was later squeezed out, but in 2022, it ranked 111th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people with total assets of $16.3 billion and regained the throne of the richest man in the UK.

Ratcliffe claims to have been a Manchester United fan since he was a child and watched the 1999 Champions League final at Camp Nou, but had previously wanted to buy Chelsea, where Abu had left behind. He has experience in sports management, buying Ligue 1 club Nice for 110 million euros in 2019 and runs the famous cycling team, Ineos Racing.

Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani was younger, born in 1982, and became the head of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) at the age of 23. His father, a well-known prime minister of Qatar and chairman of the Qatar Investment Group (QIA), owned numerous properties in London and provided King Charles with £2.6 million in support.

Jassim claims to have liked Manchester United since he was 10 years old, and his '92 Foundation, named after the famous Manchester United "Class of 92", once refused to buy Chelsea.

Bid wildly! Britain's richest man vs Qatari tycoon: who is the ideal owner of Manchester United?

The richest PK local tycoon

So, Britain's richest man and Qatari tycoon, one offering £4 billion and the other £4.5 billion, are both offering to acquire the Glazer family's entire stake in the club, so who is more likely to be the ultimate winner? Let's make a comparison.

In terms of financial resources, Qatar Islamic Bank's total assets reached a staggering £42 billion, and even if it was 5 billion, it used only one-eighth of it. Although Ratcliffe has the Ineos Group, his personal assets are 6.1 billion pounds, only 1/7 of the former.

From the perspective of "pie painting", the Qatari consortium claims to restore Manchester United's glory on and off the pitch, once again putting fans at the heart of Manchester United's club, achieving complete debt-free, and seeking to invest in the team, training centres, stadiums and wider infrastructure, fan experience and the community that the club supports, making Manchester United the greatest club in the world.

Ratcliffe "tried to make Manchester United a beacon of modern, progressive, fan-centric ownership" to make United once again the number one in the world and win the Champions League.

In contrast, Ratcliffe has the advantage of being more supported by local fans in the UK and will not face much scrutiny and hindrance from the government and the Premier League in the process of acquiring clubs. This is also the disadvantage of the Qataris, which can be imagined by referring to the huge resistance and obstacles encountered by the previous Saudi consortium when acquiring Newcastle.

Bid wildly! Britain's richest man vs Qatari tycoon: who is the ideal owner of Manchester United?

In addition, it is also questionable whether the close relationship between Qatar Islamic Bank and the Qatar Investment Authority will lead UEFA to ban Manchester United and Greater Paris from participating in the Champions League at the same time. Of course, Ratcliffe and Ligue 1 also have problems in this regard, but it is not so likely that Nice and Manchester United will play in the Champions League at the same time.

To sum up, if the acquisition of Manchester United is followed by a lot of money to attract strong signings, then the Qatari family base and strength are undoubtedly stronger, which reminds people of the rapid rise of Manchester City and Greater Paris, which are more attractive to the world and more promising for the future to reshape their glory.

As for UEFA's regulations, it is actually easy to solve, after all, the president of Greater Paris Gnaser is still the president of the European Club Association, and UEFA president Ceferin is on the side, and can be operated to clear the relationship between the two groups, just like Leipzig and Salzburg, which belong to the Red Bull group.

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