Oh and it’s not important to me either?! Thanks.
Club Sale | It’s done!
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More a vanity project if anything. Dubai is seen as more cosmopolitan and 'international' than Abu Dhabi, but I wouldn't go as far as calling them more progressive, its objectively still the same dictatorship with a questionable human rights record...to put it generously.
On the plus side its not the headchopping, journalist murderers who now own Newcastle. They're the absolute worst of the bunch.
I don't want to be owned by middle eastern torturers, so I'd prefer the least worst capitalist, accepting that will make it unlikely we can compete with City or Newcastle down the line. That could well be Ratcliffe but I'd definitely want someone doing it for corporate PR as well as return on capital, like Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. The problem with the Glazers is they didn't really care what the fans thought or if games were won or lost. They really only cared about the dividend. Darcie Glazer is known to have taken out a bunch of loans using her United shares as collatoral so if interest rates are going up and her dividend is going down, she won't be happy no matter what the score is at full time.
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It's the same thing as the Glazer's in the sense they appoint the people to run the club. If they are shit then it's on him
Well why post shit content like that then?
If you’re going to call him (and the consortium that will be involved) the equivalent of the Glazers you best back that with some valid reasons why. More than ‘have you seen where Nice are in the table’.
Otherwise it’s just blatantly WUMming
Yep. Some people whose grasp on reality is ever-so-fleeting think this clown is any different than what we've had up until this point. Replacing one Glazer with another Glazer. Great.
I'm not worried about him. Doubt his offer can compete with what the rest will come up with. If it's true the ICD are in for it, then it's pretty much over.
Possibly, but it seems like this will be a transaction pursuant to the Cayman Island’a Companies Act. I.e., the Glazers can privately of course always sell their shares whenever they want. But anyone looking to buy the company will probably want the whole lot. So they don’t have to bother with all restrictions of operating an entity with minority owners.
Hence, I would guess that we will see a formal process under Cayman law. I talked with a friend who I know have made transactions there, who told me that it was common right now with so called Merger Take Private transactions. Other alternatives are a classic tender offer or a scheme of arrangements.
My point is just, in such process (a merger), a bidder makes a formal offer to the Board of Directors. All independent directors decide if the offer should be accepted. If it is accepted, and if a general meeting of all shareholders of Manchester United plc votes in favor of it (the Glazers probably controls that vote by themselves), the transaction is done. All shareholders get a cash sum.
To do that, the board must do it’s due diligence and make sure there is a proper auction process that cannot be challenged. Which it seems like the Board now has initiated.
I don’t quiet get why the Glazers would ‘sell to their pals’ in the US, and not let Raine find the highest offer (that would be accepted by the PL).
However — the above is contingent on a buyer wanting to acquire 100% of the shares in Manchester United plc. If someone is content with just taking over the Glazer’s shares (and absolute control of the company), the Glazers could chose to sell to whomever they wants for whatever price they want. But if they were planning to do that — I am not sure why they would start the process with Raine.
A lot of speculation above, could definitely be missing something rendering it incorrect.
I disagree with the notion our value has peaked.
Women's football has really taken off and will continue to rise, stadium expansions will be lucrative in the longer run, Premier League pre seasons abroad will be a huge revenue and TV revenue is going to be more tasty as streaming platforms show their hand more.
Dubai is independent of Abu Dhabi. Two different emirates. As has been discussed in this thread, Abu Dhabi have waaaaaaay more oil and consequently way more money. Dubai is more dependent on tourism, still have a lot of money.
I’ve posted it at least 4 times and no one seems to give a flying feck. But yeah, call me a WUM why don’t you.
Edit: here it is if you can stop calling me a WUM for 2 mins - simply because I disagree with the CAF’s darling Ratcliffe.
This is what a French flair on r/soccer said last time the Ratcliffe news popped up.
You should look at what they are doing with the football club they currently own. Their methods may work in lesser sports, but they have zero knowledge about football and they lack the humility to realize it.
Brailsford has apparently taken a liking to being a sporting director, but he's completely out of his depth and it shows in Nice.
And another comment
Every interview with sports directors who've left the team is the same retelling of how Brailsford (the baldy) hires smart people with huge wads of money, those people make smart decisions, then Dave gets into one of his nervous panics, decides he knows better demands they do everything differently and things fall apart
But at least in football there's no doping questions to literally run away from, like he did with that journalist in 2015
This is a comment about another club he/INEOS owns.
He (or rather his company INEOS) also own Swiss side Lausanne Sport and they're absolutely shit now. They've basically been (ab)used as a loan farm for OGC Nice players. They had absolutely no strategic vision for the club. They've transformed more and more into a plastic club without any true identity. Last season they got relegated despite some fairly hefty investments made by INEOS over the years. It's quite surprising given that other clubs manage to stay in the Swiss top flight despite far lower budgets
Yeah I think in my order of "things that would bother me" about the owners (ignoring how they handle the club) it would rank as:
- Morality/ethics of the source of ownership
- Using the club as sportswashing (linked to point 1 I guess)
- Being state funded, removing competitiveness in the game due to ~funds
Some people have these things called morals. Might be worth googling.
Some of the comments in here on potential suitors are really sad.
Give me Kuwait.
The guys follow up tweet says we'd dwarf city's wealth but fall well below Newcastle's ?
In an Ideal world, Ratcliffe takes over, but i can't see it, Amazon would be interesting, But it'll be the Dubai Investment lot, we'll be loaded and probably be successful but it's not a great prospect, especially after i've spent years slagging city off for being state owned
Jeff Bezos perhaps…?
Don't think it really matters, unless the three clubs are going to start bidding for players in the billions rather than millions
We need wealth to get our infrastructure even more superior than oil clubs out there for the next 20 years, will Jim have that? hmmm
Jim'll fix it
Think of Abu Dhabi and Dubai as two out of seven monarchies/emirates that decided to work together and were federated in 1971 — whereas the likes of Bahrain and Qatar established separate nation states in close proximity. Much of the pertinent information can be deduced from a couple of maps...
- Abu Dhabi is the largest in terms of land area, by far (at roughly 87% of the total).
Dubai has certain things going for — it has the largest population of the seven emirates, is more cosmopolitan and globally oriented, and its economy is diverse (focused on services, commerce, real estate, tourism, and so forth instead of mining and quarrying); but Abu Dhabi is the real economic nucleus (accounting for ⅔rd of the collective GDP) as well as the administrative capital.
- Abu Dhabi also claims the lion's share of proven hydrocarbon reserves (roughly 90 billion barrels out of a total 98 billion barrels of oil, and much of the gas as well).
The United Arab Emirates is an elective monarchy formed from a federation of seven emirates, consisting of Abu Dhabi (the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain. Each emirate is governed by an Emir.
The Emirate of Dubai is ruled by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Dubai is the capital of Emirate of Dubai and is bordered to the south by the emirate of Abu Dhabi, to the northeast by the emirate of Sharjah, to the southeast by the country of Oman, to the east by the emirate of Ajman, and to the north by the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.
The UAE capital – and by far the wealthiest emirate – Abu Dhabi has also seen a population boom in the last 50 years. But there is a marked difference between the UAE’s two most successful emirates – Abu Dhabi still relies on oil for much of its wealth. Today less than 1% of Dubai’s GDP is from oil – at one time it was over half.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/dubai-uae-transformation/
Thank you!
There are no nice rich people. Best we can hope is a Chelsea like scenario with a smart owner (rather than Boehly). Funds either will be PE backed or state owned. And state owned is an absolute no-no.
I can't wait, they were probably part of the pro Glazer brigade too.
I'll be leaving football social media if we do get a Dubai constritium. The virtue signalling will be overwhelming
He’s wrong.
Bloody hell. Kuwait is loaded
Why do you want an owner who would not care about the club? Enough of this
I think the logic of some of these fans is the more money the owner has, the less they would need to load the club up with debt and the more we can throw our financial weight to stay relevant.
They’re no different to the owners of City or Newcastle is my point. Whether their wealth comes from oil or any other source is irrelevant. They’re scumbags and don’t want them tarnishing our club.
And they’re an absolute monarchy that torture and lock up dissidents and stifle any free speech. Ipso facto a dictatorship.
Mate please dont. Nobody here is of any brigade. We all want a owner who invest and make us compete again at the top level.
There are genuine concerns about every potential owner who are in the running. That doesn’t make anyone part of any brigade
It won't be. You think the Glazers will accept when Dubai blow him out of the water. I wouldn't worry
An American won't be the highest bid. It will be a middle east state which will probably be Dubai. People need to accept that as the Glazers doesn't care about sports washing etc.
There are concerns and there’s state run. The two are not even slightly comparable, I’d much rather keep the Glazers than be the latter.
Spoilt brats
Ditto
And i think “care” is bit overrated. You dont want the owner to interfere in day to day activities. I would argue owner who wont interfere in our footballing decisions is better than owner who might support us or care about the club.
Unfortunately Arabs have been pretty good at this
Its not an easy choice for a lot of other people. I would prefer someone else than state owned entities but my preference means nothing. People who can come up with 6b are very less and they dont score very high on morality list.
Plus Glazers are looking to cash out. So Glazers now are not an option
Obviously we’d have the skintest of the oil countries
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