Glazers all over again? Man Utd sent worrying message from Qatar

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 2 Mar 2023 13:50 GMT
• 3 min read

The father of the Qatari royal who bid for Manchester United has stated that he is unsure about an investment in the Premier League side.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar, said that he is not a football fan and that any move to financially take on the club would be a matter of business, not an ‘advertisement’ for the country.

It comes after his son, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, fronted a bid to buy the English giants off the Glazer family.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Kouadio Kone set for €40m Premier League move

“I am not a football fan,” said Sheikh Hamad, speaking on the David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations, which was published by Bloomberg before his son’s bid was made. I don’t like this investment. Maybe it will work well. But you know, some of my sons like this, they always discuss it with me. They’re pushing hard. This isn’t my speciality.

“Let me put it like this: I am an investor. If it will one day be a good investment, I will think about it. I will not look at it as something you do just as an advertisement.”

A proposal to buy Man Utd from the Glazer family looked to promise to wipe the club’s debt and pump in money to pay for improvements to Old Trafford and the Carrington training ground.

But the move has seemingly hit a stumbling block, with the amount reportedly less than the £ 6 billion asking price communicated by Raine, the merchant bank handling the sale.

Takeover negotiations underway

Now, The Athletic report that negotiations are expected over a fee, while. Joel and Avram Glazer are open to the idea of selling a minority stake.

Sheikh Hamad was also against Qatar hosting the World Cup - but then went back on his words, seeing how prosperous the tournament was for the country.

“If it was my choice, I wouldn’t have done it at that time,” he said. “When I was prime minister and this idea came to his Highness, the Father Emir, and his crown prince at the time, Sheikh Tamim, they knew that I was against it.

"Because I thought that’s a lot of money and effort that will be spent. We could spend it on something else that’s good for the people and the country.”