Club Sale | It’s done!

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Red in STL

Turnover not takeover
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Unfortunately, there is no real solution here. The fans want someone to buy the club without receiving anything in return, beyond price appreciation (or depreciation). When financially-motivated investors, such as the Americans, come up, fans understandably dont want. When sovereign wealth funds come up, from countries with a branding problem, fans understandably do not want.

So we are left with just wanting a potential private sugar daddy with massive pockets, who won't want to take any dividends. If it was a cheaper club, that might be reasonable,, but at the prices now discussed, impossible for all but the top 3-5 wealthieat individuals in the world (almost all of whom would have to sell big cap tech assets that are now at distressed prices in order to raise cash).

I dont see a solution beyond having a whip round the global fan base for fans to buy the club ourselves - maybe 3 pound apiece. But that clearly comes with its own issues. Should I post in a new thread?
Everything you say is true, the latter point would be the worst TBH, as this forum clearly shows, most of the fans actually agree on very little between them!
 

Hal9000

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What is Ratcliffe washing?
His company is one of the worst polluters in the country, let alone the world. His money is from oil, gas and petrochemicals, they make the microplastics that bottles/toys etc are made of, e.g. the ones that break down and kill off sea life, they constantly push for fraking and shale gas initiatives aswell. His plants constantly violate emisions standards, the Grangemouth site constantly gets very poor compliance ratings from Scotish Environmental Protection. Not to mention he and his company campaigned for Brexit to get away from EU regulations on Ineos, whilst they quickly shifted their offices to Switzerland and himself to Monaco to avoid tax after that shows what kind of company they are.

The fact that people mostly associated Ineos with the cycling team and various sports they sponsor shows it works though. But it's ok, he's a British Man Utd fan who, lives in Monaca and has a season ticket at Chelsea. :D
 

Plant0x84

Shame we’re aren’t more like Brighton
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Sportswashing, greenwashing blah, blah, blah if you want to watch top tier football we are long past the point of no return... if you want a vegan, PETA, Greeenpeace, Amnesty international, friendly club good luck finding one above pub level, my soul has long since been sold many times over.
Forest Green say hi.
 

Andycoleno9

matchday malcontent
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Whoever we get, i am glad it will be over soon. The most important thing is that we start next season prepared, with transfer budget big enough to buy striker and other players who ETH wants.
 

cyberman

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Is he the one with PSG inks? Stuff like this could get us in trouble
 

Steve Bruce

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I have followed United since 1983, but football is "just" football. I would hate to get oil money into the club, and the clubs I hate most are precisely clubs like City, PSG and Newcastle, where all morality is disregarded for money.

I want the best for United, but not at any cost. I would rather see the club become a middle club in the PL than win everything as a toy of an oil sheik who has been totally indifferent to morals and human rights. It's not even a hard choice, if it was a choice.
That's the issue here though, we as a collective or individual do not have any choice. We will have to wait and see who takes over and then everyone as an Individual will have to make up their minds what they want. Whether it's to protest against the new owners, carry one as usual, stop supporting United altogether or whatever other course of action/inaction we want to make.

FCUM facilitates anyone that's had enough, so at least for those who choose to uphold their morals and finish with MUFC, there's a club already set up and willing to accept new supporters.
 

NYAS

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Put it this way I'm sure Newcastle, City, Chelsea fans all made the same argument you're making. They were all aware of the negatives and all turned defensjve, looked to the positives blah blah. If you never threw shade at those who defended their owners fine but let's not pretend the majority of us didn't.

Shearer was massively mocked for his excitement at it despite mentioning the concerns. Rightly too.

As a fan base I'd hope we were better than those lot. We've spent a decade slagging off our owners, yet here we are with worse owners coming in and some are on the defensive on their behalf. So yeah opposition fans will mock that aspect as will I because it's pathetic.
My point is not all opposition fans are the same. I’m happy to take shit from some clubs but not others.

Bayern, one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, a complete mammoth in Germany, being unable to remove a “go to Qatar every year” clause in their sponsorship agreement for over a decade. “Properly run”. And I should lie down and take shit from their fans. Give me a break.
 

Roboc7

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When all is said and done I still expect the most viable offers will be from US consortiums and Glazers will accept whichever one of those suits them the best.
 

Rightnr

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My point is not all opposition fans are the same. I’m happy to take shit from some clubs but not others.

Bayern, one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, a complete mammoth in Germany, being unable to remove a “go to Qatar every year” clause in their sponsorship agreement for over a decade. “Properly run”. And I should lie down and take shit from their fans. Give me a break.
Not to mention them making a mockery of their league and 'rivals' still defending them. It's quite pathetic
 

Judas

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When all is said and done I still expect the most viable offers will be from US consortiums and Glazers will accept whichever one of those suits them the best.
I don’t get this logic at all. It will be oil money from the Middle East. Big fat loads of money, it’s all the Glazers care about.
 

DWelbz19

Correctly predicted Portugal to win Euro 2016
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Unfortunately, there is no real solution here. The fans want someone to buy the club without receiving anything in return, beyond price appreciation (or depreciation). When financially-motivated investors, such as the Americans, come up, fans understandably dont want. When sovereign wealth funds come up, from countries with a branding problem, fans understandably do not want.

So we are left with just wanting a potential private sugar daddy with massive pockets, who won't want to take any dividends. If it was a cheaper club, that might be reasonable,, but at the prices now discussed, impossible for all but the top 3-5 wealthieat individuals in the world (almost all of whom would have to sell big cap tech assets that are now at distressed prices in order to raise cash).

I dont see a solution beyond having a whip round the global fan base for fans to buy the club ourselves - maybe 3 pound apiece. But that clearly comes with its own issues. Should I post in a new thread?
Yep. Nail on head here really
 

Camy89

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Eventually every country in the Arabian peninsula will have its own English club.

Qatar - United
UAE - City
Saudi - Newcastle
Yemen - Barnet
 

LARulz

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Eventually every country in the Arabian peninsula will have its own English club.

Qatar - United
UAE - City
Saudi - Newcastle
Yemen - Barnet
As my local team I would be interested to see
 

Roboc7

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I don’t get this logic at all. It will be oil money from the Middle East. Big fat loads of money, it’s all the Glazers care about.
It makes perfect sense, the logic buyers from the Middle East are going to lavish fortunes they don’t need to makes no sense. There is also the fact that any bid from the Middle East will be complicated by ties to the state either directly or indirectly and probably ownership of other clubs.

The most likely scenario is all the bids will be fairly similar in value and a huge factor will be how likely the bid is to go through if it’s accepted.

A US bid backed by known equity funds etc is going to sail through in comparison to a bid from Qatar.
 

Super Schweini

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Lots of talk about sports washing but surely this washing works both ways.

People from these ME countries will also have to be aware that their Royal Families / Sheiks / Heads of State are massively investing in a league that's always promoting gender equality, LGBTQ rights, Anti Racism etc.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Are Glazers only ones who decide about buyer (accepting a bid)?
Not fully, there’s still regulators involved who could stop the deal from happening. I can’t see the Premier League being keen on Qataris buying United
 

MoskvaRed

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Sadly there’s not much we can do other than consider withdrawing our support if the new owner is particularly problematic. I’m not thrilled by Qatari state-ownership although it wouldn’t be such a black and white issue for me as Saudi ownership. Whoever buys United, I just hope that, in relation to the football side, the new owners are hands off (no jokes, please…). We have finally got a good manager and, seemingly, a more coherent transfer and squad management policy, and the last thing we need is ostentatious marquee signings being jetted in to flatter the new owner’s ego. As regards finances, the club is largely self-financing in terms of on-field matters but we do need capital investment to update Old Trafford and Carrington, both of which have been frozen in time since 2005. I think that additional investment need would scupper Radcliffe (unless we take on more debt at a time of rising borrowing rates).
 

LARulz

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Glazer's will sell to the highest bidder, they couldn't care less what the rest of the package is/what they plan to do with the club. So I do imagine it will probably be someone from the Middle East
 

El-Manos

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When all is said and done I still expect the most viable offers will be from US consortiums and Glazers will accept whichever one of those suits them the best.
It will be the highest offer which will most likely not be a US consortium
 

Infra-red

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Glazer's will sell to the highest bidder, they couldn't care less what the rest of the package is/what they plan to do with the club. So I do imagine it will probably be someone from the Middle East
Pretty sure the top 10 most expensive sports team purchases in history would all be American investors? I wouldn't rule them out.
 

Cassidy

No longer at risk of being mistaken for a Scouser
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I’m a bit thick, what’s he implying?
Hes implying that the Qatari bid must be real if they are taking the time to quash possibly conflicts on interest in ownership of PSG and United.
 

Valencia's Left Foot

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I will eventually be fine with our new Qatari overlords...much better than the private equity leeches circling the club who will inevitably give zero shits about whether United win or lose, as long as they are taking money from the club back to their investors.
 

Alvaro Maestre

Last Man Standing 2 finalist 2023/24
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Admins, can I finally get my last like now that so many posters in here will stop watching United and being around here? I don't really mind where the money comes from, I just want the new owners follow all the required rules.

Edit : 2 please .
 
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