Europe 1 with AFP 10:28 p.m., February 17, 2023

Qatar has officially made an offer to buy the entirety of English football club Manchester United.

It is a consortium led by Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, president of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), which announced on Friday that it had submitted this offer to take over 100% of the club.

A consortium led by Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, chairman of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), announced on Friday that it had submitted a bid to take over English football club Manchester United.

"Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani confirms that he has submitted an offer for (the) 100% takeover of Manchester United Football Club," said the statement, which did not give any details on the amount offered for the Red Devils.

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Release the club from its debts

According to the press, the club put up for sale at the end of November by its American owners, the Glazer family, could become the biggest sale of a sports club in the world, for nearly 6 billion euros.

"The offer aims to restore the club to its past glory both on and off the pitch and, above all, it aims to put the fans back at the heart of Manchester United Football Club," the statement read.

If the offer goes through, the club will be released from its debts, which currently stand at EUR 580 million, and its promoters undertake to "invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium and infrastructure in the broad sense", he explains again.

QIB is one of the largest banks in Qatar.

Its majority shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, owner of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which controls Paris SG.

The son of a former Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, 42, is touted as a childhood supporter of Manchester United.

There are, however, expected to be other offers for the club, as the Glazers were hoping for firm offers for this Friday and would like to complete the sale by the end of April.

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A Saudi offer

British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe and his petrochemical group Ineos, which already own clubs in Nice, France, and Lausanne, Switzerland, were the only ones to make their interest known publicly.

But the English press took it for granted that an offer would also be submitted by Saudi investors.