As British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani face off in the Manchester United takeover battle, Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus made his own surprise bid to purchase the famous club.
In a statement released Thursday, the founder of social media organization novaM Group said he submitted a bid Wednesday through XXI Century Capital, an investment firm owned by his holding company. The entrepreneur is touting a unique bid that he says will include fans in the ownership structure.
Zilliacus has subsequently urged Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim to join forces with him in a joint bid for the club, which has been owned by the American Glazer family since 2005.
“Instead of outbidding each other and letting the owners walk away with a billion or two on top of what the real value of the club should be, let’s join forces and spend money on the club,” he told MarketWatch. “For me, it’s all about making Manchester United the best club in the world, or returning it to that.”
The Mirror reports that Zilliacus’ bid has been dismissed as “unworkable” and not a serious proposal by the rival bidders.
See Now: Manchester United takeover drama continues as billionaire Jim Ratcliffe submits revised bid
Sheikh Jassim’s bid is for full ownership of Manchester United, which it feels would be in the best interests of the club, the fans and the wider community. MarketWatch understands that the Sheikh’s Nine Two Foundation, which is handling his bid, has no interest in pairing up with other bidders.
MarketWatch has reached out to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s representatives with a request for comment on this story.
“It’s certainly no publicity stunt and I am dead serious about this,” Zilliacus told MarketWatch, noting that he was already on the lookout for a soccer club to invest in, mainly in Italy. But he decided to join the Manchester United takeover race when he realized a decision had been made to put the club up for sale “once and for all.”
Interested parties were set a Wednesday deadline to submit bids for the club, although The Guardian reports that this was “dramatically extended” at the last minute.
Related: Manchester United stock tumbles as takeover drama continues
Shares of operator Manchester United Ltd.
MANU,
fell 1.1% Friday. The stock has risen 0.7% in 2023, compared with the S&P 500 Index’s
SPX,
2.7% gain.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim’s high-profile bids to wrest control of Manchester United from the Glazers have garnered plenty of attention in recent months. Ratcliffe is the chief executive of the chemical giant Ineos and the billionaire’s sporting links are strong: Ratcliffe, who ranks 27th on the Sunday Times Rich List, already owns the French Ligue 1 soccer club OGC Nice and the Ineos Grenadiers professional cycling team.
Sheikh Jassim is the chair of Qatar Islamic Bank and the son of a past prime minister of Qatar. The Sheikh is bidding for the club through his Nine Two Foundation, which was named in an apparent nod to Manchester United’s “class of ’92” FA Youth Cup-winning team, which included future stars David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt.
“I am not as wealthy as they are, but I am wealthy enough to be able to table a serious bid for this,” Zilliacus told MarketWatch. “I really hope that for the sake of the club and the fans that we can find this common ground with the other contenders.”
Related: Manchester United stock jumps after report of ‘world record bid’ for the club
Zilliacus is the former chairman of Finnish soccer club HJK and former co-owner of hockey team Jockerit.
He says that his plan is to first buy Manchester United, then to set up a mechanism that enables fans to make an investment and vote to decide footballing matters related to the famous club.
“The fans, obviously, love this approach, of the fans being involved,” he said. “It has been very encouraging, the feedback.”
The Glazers have come under intense pressure to sell the iconic English football club amid ongoing fan frustration over what is seen as underperformance. The club, one of the biggest names in world soccer, last won the Premier League in 2013. In 2021, the Glazers faced major backlash from fans over planned involvement in the controversial European Super League.
See Now: Manchester United owners push sale deadline back, report says
In November, they confirmed they were exploring potential financial investment or an outright sale of the storied Premier League club.
Sky Sports reports that the Glazers are looking for $7.4 billion for the famous club, which had a calculated value of $4.6 billion in 2022, according to Forbes.
The club did clinch its first silverware in six years last month, with a 2-0 defeat of Newcastle United in the League Cup final.
Manchester United is the most successful team in the English top division, which it has won 20 times. A record 13 of those titles have come in the Premier League era, which began in 1992. Founded as Newton Heath in 1878, the club became Manchester United in 1902 and won the first of its 20 league titles six years later.
