The original source of the image
What will be the future of Manchester United?
The move for British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to take part in Manchester United could be unpleasant for Red Devils fans but is the first step on the way to the English club's recovery.
The Manchester United crowd who fired fireworks near Old Trafford were unimaginable when the Glazers announced their thinking of selling the club This will be complicated and mysterious for 11 months, but it finally comes to an end as Jim Ratcliffe's group approaches, From the acquisition of 25% of the club's shares for £1.4 billion after Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani withdrew his offer.
The result seems unsatisfactory to fans as the Glazers remain in control, are about to earn more money and continue at Old Trafford Castle for more than 18 years, and have earned almost twice the amount they paid to the club.
After a year of protests, the Glazers will still own the club and Manchester United will remain heavily indebted and protests against the American royal family are unlikely to diminish, but there are reasons for optimism after Jim Ratcliffe's takeover, and reports that he will take charge of sports matters.
Vague decision from the beginning!
The reaction to recent developments for Manchester United's future has been confusion, with former United captain Gary Neville, who has been a vocal critic of Glazer's ownership in past years, stating that minority investment "leaves more questions than answers" and asked 16 special questions about how Ratcliffe might affect the club.
Given that the move to acquire the club was opaque and unclear from the outset, it is not surprising the unsatisfactory end for many fans who wanted the Glazer family to leave and most were in favour of the full sale promised by Sheikh Jassim.
Manchester United's statement initially read: "The Board of Directors will consider all strategic alternatives, including new investment in the club, sale or other company-related transactions."
Until last Saturday, news spread that Sheikh Jassim was about to withdraw from the negotiation process and sources close to the country billionaire had spoken last August that they had received no response from United regarding the offer, They said they were concerned about the Glazers not wanting to sell the club. s share price has fallen to an all-time low.
United remained silent on the matter and Ratcliffe, or Sheikh Jassim, did not speak and discuss their plans because of the confidentiality agreement.
More Protests
Manchester United's situation continued to deteriorate and the club retracted their agreed contract with David De Gea and caused real chaos in the Mason Greenwood case, with the player spending 6 months in an internal investigation over being accused of sexual abuse before management agreed to reintegrate him into the team, but the club reversed its decision after a wave of outrage.
The team played every game at Old Trafford surrounded by fan protests, and by late September, United had already suffered three home defeats, more than last season.
If Ratcliffe is confirmed to be a "minority investor" by the governing body, public anger may be exacerbated and the 1958 group, which organized most of the protests over the past year, has demanded a full sale only and the authorities fear holding a demonstration before the next game at Old Trafford against Copenhagen, in the Champions League.
Mystery of Sheikh Jassim's decline
Sheikh Jassim was the only hope of a full sale to Manchester United because his organization was the only one who wanted to buy the club in full and Qatar's banking offer seemed very attractive to the fans as he promised to settle the club's debt and invest $1.7 billion in infrastructure and would have ended the control of the hated Glazer family.
But the Qatari businessman's interest in Manchester United was shrouded in mystery. No one knew any information about him and did nothing to change that. There was only one picture circulating of him. People in Qatar's business community said he was an unknown figure, which was unusual for someone offering to buy a multi-billion dollar football club.
When United invited Sheikh Jasim to Old Trafford to meet with managers and discuss their offer, Sheikh Jasim was absent! How can someone who wants to buy the world's largest club miss such an important meeting?, Unlike Ratcliffe, who attended and took photos outside the stadium and shook hands with Eric Tin Hag.
Sheikh Jassim may have been the interface for an offer from Qatar only, and reports said that Paris Saint-Germain Club President Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Chairman of Qatar Sports Investment Board were heavily involved in this.
There is growing hostility between the Premier League towards state-owned clubs after Abu Dhabi's investment in Manchester City and Saudi ownership of Newcastle United, and the football regulator proposed by the Government of England is set to take a tough stance towards state-backed clubs.
Real United fan
Ratcliffe's practical role helped beat the Glazer family, as he and his associates traveled to the United States to meet with the family long before the strategic review was announced, saying that Americans were "very charming and kind, despite the attack they were under."
Ratcliffe's character, his business intelligence, helped him become one of Britain's richest men, led him to outsmart Sheikh Jassim, and eventually paid him a heavy price for his 25% stake.
Many fans who were initially keen on Ratcliffe because of his constant support for United and Manchester roots have since turned on him, calling him a traitor because he reduced his quota at the request of the Glazers and would not be popular with many supporters but should be welcomed because Ratcliffe, a true United supporter who was in the 1999 Champions League final.
Ratcliffe said: "These are my most extraordinary football memories, we were not supposed to win three minutes before this crazy three minutes you will never forget in your life," and although Sheikh Jassim called his Nine Two foundation a generation "Class 92" at United, he had no stories associated with following the team.
Sports Experience
More importantly, Ratcliffe's experience, after years of involvement in the sports side where his company INEOS participates in the Mercedes Formula team 1 owns one of the biggest teams in cycling, as well as French club Nice, and Swiss league team Lausanne Sport.
After a few years of chaos, Nice made an impressive start to the Ligue 1 season and finished second in the table behind Paris Saint-Germain. Sporting director David Brailsford was the mastermind of Sky's dominance in cycling between 2010 and 2019, and is expected to join Manchester United and INEOS can also be proud of the experience of sports CEO Jean-Claude Blanc, former CEO of Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
This will be an improvement for United's current senior officials as CEO Richard Arnold takes over His position since 2022 after he joined as commercial director, while athletic director John Murtaugh was promoted s recent signings include Jadon Sancho who was currently dismissed from the team after his feud with Tin Haag, Andre Onana, who began a disastrous start to his career with the Red Devils.
Many demands and influential attendance!
Ratcliffe is expected to play a big role in United's management, notoriously ruthless and for example his barbs at United in a 2019 interview with The Times, where he said: "INEOS never wants to be stupid money, Manchester is in a very big bind they haven't chosen the manager properly, they've spent enormous sums since Ferguson's departure but they've been shockingly poor, to be honest."
"We have a different approach here, to be smart, to take care of the grassroots, to try to find young talent and some clubs seem to have the ability to do that, like Southampton and Lille."
Ratcliffe must also provide some attention and continued presence in games where the team needs support. The Glazers have not been seen at Old Trafford in years, and only Avram Glazer has appeared in games recently, attending last season's men's and women's FA Cup finals and being crowned Carabao Cup.
Americans dislike propaganda and had no interaction with supporters unlike the British businessman with a strong record of dealing with Nice fans and that would be a welcome change, and Ratcliffe would be eager to impress, and there are already suggestions that he wants to expand Old Trafford's capacity to 90 thousand spectators.