Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe have reportedly submitted world-record bids at Wednesday’s deadline to purchase Manchester United from the Glazer family.
Sky Sports reports that Sheikh Jassim is submitting a bid in excess of $6.2 billion, while the Financial Times reports that Ratcliffe is doing the same. Some sources are pegging both bids at around $6.8 billion.
Either way, if the Glazers accept one of the two, it would far eclipse the world record for a sports team purchase set last summer when Rob Walton bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion.
The new sky-high bids for United would still fall short of the $7.2 billion valuation the Glazers said they were looking for when they began exploring a sale of the club — but they’re still more than the reported first bids, which came in around $5.5 billion.
Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe made visits to Old Trafford last week and began preparing their next round of bids after walking away from the grounds with positive momentum.
They may have some company, however: Sky also reports that there will be at least five bids and as many as eight in total — though not all seek to buy the club outright. In fact, at least half will be for a minority stake or financing options for other parties.
