Manchester United have been in the hands of the Glazer family for 20 years, during which time around £1.2bn has been spent on debt interest, repayments, dividends and fees, after a takeover that loaded the club with debt
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| Avram Glazer, Executive Co-Chairman of Manchester United, and his family have never been popular in Manchester(Image: Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) |
The Glazers have treated Manchester United like a cash-cow. For two decades, the Floridian billionaires, who own a 48.9 percent stake in the club, have been making hay while the sun shines.
They have done so having loaded the club up to its eyeballs with debt. Since their 2005 takeover, around £1.2billion has been spent on debt interest, repayments, dividends and fees to the Glazers. They have sat back and milked a club they view as a business, more than a footballing institution for as much as they possibly could.
Despite not winning the Champions League since 2008 or the Premier League title since 2013, United continue to boast record revenues. Never mind losses of £33m, the latest figures in June showed United generated revenues of almost £670m. And this is despite the team not even being in the Champions League.
They are largely reviled by United fans. But they don't care. And when you've got the cash coming in like they have, who would want to give up such a good thing?
Certainly, not the Glazers.
You'd have to be 'filthy rich' to even get them to the table to persuade them to sell a piece of their United pie. But on thing that Turki Al-Sheikh most definitely is, is 'filthy rich'.
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| Turki Al-Sheikh has been linked with a move for Manchester United(Image: TKO Worldwide LLC via Getty Images) |
A billionaire worth in excess of £2billion, he's the head of the sporting division of the Saudi Arabian government. And the man masterminding a sportwashing campaign aimed at improving his nation's atrocious reputation when it comes to human rights, the treatment of women and political controversies.
The Saudis have the keys to the kingdom when it comes to LIV Golf, while Formula One has succumbed to the Middle East kingdom's vast wealth too. So has snooker, with darts poised to follow. In 2034, the World Cup heads there too.
Publicly, Al-Sheikh - better known as Turki - has his claws into boxing. You'll have seen him calling up Eddie Hearn and making the Matchroom Boxing supremo jump into action whenever he fancied in the Hearn's Netflix documentary. Turki's £1bn collaboration with DAZN, via Matchroom, has seen the biggest fights head to Saudi.
For starters, INEOS, who own a 27.7 per cent share of United, are not in the conversation. Sir Jim Ratcliffe remains committed to the English giants, and has no interest in selling what he spent a lifetime striving to get his hands on.
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| Sir Jim Ratcliffe has no interest in parting with his stake in United(Image: PA |
On the other hand however, the Glazers would be willing to sit round a table if the price was right.
Yet, it would stretch even Turki's cavernous pockets. United's current value is around £2billion, but the Glazers would want a 'premium' based on potential future values. They've seen what Chelsea went for a few years back, not to mention the valuation of US sports teams, most notably those in NFL.
United are refusing to comment, and claim to have no knowledge of any negotiations taking place with the Saudis. But the Glazers could be plotting a sale in secret back in the United States. Who knows?
But there is one thing that we do now. One thing that remains as true as it has always been: Money talks.
And nowhere is that more true, nowhere does money speak louder, than in football.
The rest of sport is succumbing to Saudi. If Turki wants United, why would it be any different?
- Jeremy Cross
