Counting The Days Towards Manchester United's Deadline Sales

Manchester United is on sale. (Photo: Twitter/@ManUtd)

JAKARTA - Manchester United is almost entering a new phase in its plan to sell the club. Currently, several interested parties jostle to buy the club.

Raine Group, which has been appointed to oversee the sale, has set a deadline of February 17 for the submission of bids.

The Glazers are seeking around £6bn (equivalent to IDR110 trillion) but an initial bid could be around £4bn.

The Glazer family, as the current owner, may have to accept a lower price. This is inseparable from the cost of rebuilding Old Trafford which some people estimate could reach 2 billion pounds.

Several parties have announced their interest and the Glazers are reported to have held talks with certain groups.

One of them is a wealthy businessman who is also a club fan, Jim Ratcliffe. He became the first potential buyer who has officially expressed interest.

Ratcliffe expressed his desire to buy MU last summer. A spokesperson said, "If the club is sold, Jim is clearly a potential buyer."

Ratcliffe has investments in several sports, including football. He is reportedly the owner of Ligue 1 club Nice, as well as the pro cycling team Ineos Grenadiers.

The second prospective buyer is an investor from Qatar. Reportedly, the Glazers have reportedly held talks with a group of Qatari investors regarding a potential takeover.

Later it became a concern, whether this investor is affiliated with QSI, the owner of the Ligue 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain. After all, that would cause problems.

In a new report circulating, these investors are individual and independent from QSI. Nonetheless, the potential buyer is believed to be very wealthy and will invest in Old Trafford and the playing squad.

They allegedly want to buy the club for around £4.1-4.5bn, with an additional £2bn to spend on rebuilding the stadium.

In addition, there are also investors from Saudi Arabia. One of MU's shareholders, Avram Glazer, reportedly held talks with the group from Saudi Arabia in Doha during the World Cup.

He described the negotiations as a "process" and so far a group from the country has not publicly expressed interest.

Recently, the name of David Beckham, a former MU player who is now the owner of Inter Miami, also appeared. He is rumored to be forming a consortium to buy the club and his knowledge of the club could be useful in takeover negotiations.

Becks is believed to have contacts capable of paying the asked price of £6 billion.

His former team-mate Rio Ferdinand expects Beckham to make an approach but there has been no offer from the superstar.