Battle to buy Man Utd heats up as Qatar's Sheikh Jassim submits second bid

MANCHESTER: The battle to buy Manchester United heated up on Wednesday (Mar 22) as Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani returned with a second bid for the English giants.

British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe is also expected to make a second offer for the 20-time English champions.

Raine, the merchant bank brought in to assist the sale of the club, had set a deadline of 9pm GMT (5am, Singapore time) on Wednesday for interested parties to declare their offer.

But Sky Sports reported that the deadline has been pushed back to allow proposals to be fine-tuned.

United's owners, the Glazer family, have reportedly set a world record £6 billion (US$7.3 billion) valuation for a sports club.

Sheikh Jassim's bid for 100 per cent control of the club promises to wipe United's US$620 million debt and invest in a new stadium and training ground, in addition to backing for the men's and women's teams.

A source close to Sheikh Jassim's bid told AFP he remains confident his bid is "the best for the club, fans and local community".

INEOS chemical company founder Ratcliffe, a boyhood United fan, has been more circumspect in his assessment, insisting he will not pay a "stupid" price in bidding war for one of football's most iconic clubs.

"How do you decide the price of a painting? How do you decide the price of a house? It's not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint," Ratcliffe told the Wall Street Journal this week.

"What you don't want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently."

Ratcliffe, who wants the 69 per cent stake owned by the Glazer family, said his interest in United would be "purely in winning things", calling the club a "community asset".

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