Why potential Qatar takeover is dividing Manchester United fans

Co-director of human rights group FairSquare, Nick McGeehan, says a Qatar-led takeover of Manchester United would be “tremendously dangerous” for both the club and the city amid a bid from one of the country's high-ranked bankers, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The February statement confirming his debt-free offer said the bid would privately funded through his ‘Nine Two Foundation’, adding: "The bid plans to return the club to its former glories both on and off the pitch, and — above all — will seek to place the fans at the heart of Manchester United Football Club once more.” Ineos billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the other confirmed takeover bidder.

The proposal from Sheikh Jassim has garnered a lot of support on social media although some United fans are uneasy with the prospect of their club being owned by a Qatari businessman with strong links to the state amid human rights concerns in the nation.

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Sheikh Jassim would argue - if there was ever a need to - that he is a private investor, separate from the state and thus separate to Qatar Sports Investments, the Qatari government's investment subsidiary which owns PSG, which would allow a bid to get past any Uefa red tape around the same investors owning two clubs in the same European competition (the Champions League).

The truth is that Sheikh Jassim is the son of Qatar's former prime minister and is also the head of one of the largest Qatari banks, the Qatar Islamic Bank. The largest shareholder in that bank is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. There is no getting away from the fact that there are numerous links between Sheikh Jassim and the wealth of the Qatari state.

FairSquare penned a