Premier League announces change to takeover rules amid Manchester United sale

The Premier League has banned fully-leveraged buy-outs of its clubs.

The Premier League announced the changes in its regulation on Wednesday following its Annual General Meeting, with all members unanimously agreeing to the change.

The decision comes amid Manchester United’s takeover process. The Glazer Family financed the majority of their £790m purchase of United in 2005 through loans, some being secured against club assets. The Owners’ and Directors’ Test was introduced by the Premier League a year earlier to ensure that buyers are ‘fit-and-proper’.

The test looks for red flags that would prohibit potential new owners from taking command of a club, such as past convictions, providing inaccurate information and conflicting interests in other clubs. Tweaks to the criteria have been made since its establishment and now, the Premier League has decided that prospective owners can no longer purchase one of its clubs entirely by leverage-loans.

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Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani is financing his takeover bid for United through his Nine Two Foundation while it is rumoured that a large proportion of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s offer comes from the bank of his company, INEOS.

Sheikh Jassim, who wishes to buy 100 per cent of the club and clear its debts, submitted a revised fifth bid last week although Sir Jim is said to be leading the race with his proposal to keep Avram and Joel Glazer as minority shareholders.

Among the other topics discussed at the Premier League AGM was football governance, a crackdown on tragedy chanting and commercial finances.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb also gave a presentation of key refereeing principles ahead of the