THE GLAZERS are finally willing to sell Manchester United, according to a stunning claim by an investor who previously failed to buy into the club.
Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus has said he is planning to approach investors in a bid to purchase the Red Devils.
Zilliacus was one of the first names to throw his hat in the ring when the Glazers said they were open to a partial or full sale of the club in November 2022.
However, his unorthodox approach – which asked fans to raise £1.5billion to go alongside £3bn of his own money – failed to get him through the door as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos took a stake rising to 30 per cent while also assuming control of football operations.
Speculation this week fuelled by Saudi Arabian government official Turki Alalshikh’s suggestion the club were in discussions about a potential takeover left United sources perplexed.
But speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Zilliacus has attempted to stoke the flames by insisting he can team up with the likes of Ratcliffe, or Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim, to oust the Glazers.
He said: “Last week, I was sitting and thinking through all the possibilities of investing in Man United and drafting a basic plan on how I could approach certain parties to see if something could be done.
“This is about joining forces with the right parties with the sole aim of bringing Man United back to where it should be as the number one club in the world.
“I actually have nothing against working with people like Jim Ratcliffe or any investor, whoever that may be. Because I’m not in this to have a trophy that I can show off to other people.
“I’m in this to make a club that I’ve been a fan of since I was 12 years old the best club in the world.
“My heart cries when I see how things are going today. Man United are so far below where the club should be and could be if things were managed the right way.”
The 69-year-old called the bidding war two years ago a “farce” in an explosive social media post, but insists his love for the club has “gone nowhere” and once again called on Ratcliffe to join forces with him.
He added: “I mean, my love for the club has gone nowhere and I think the opportunity is still there. So I would really welcome an opportunity to talk to the key players and see what can be done.
“The key players, of course, today, Ratcliffe, then if other parties would be keen to join as well, then that would be great.
“Some of the investors, I think it’s almost everything or nothing, meaning either they own the club alone or they are not interested.
“So you would have to find the investors who are willing to look at what is best for the club and not what is best for the investor.
“When I had made my bid I realised that the Glazers were playing a game where Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim and myself were just trying to outbid each other.
“So the price was just going higher and higher and higher.
“I publicly said that this is madness, that this is money that should be used for the club and not to further enrich the Glazers. So I said, ‘Why don’t we join forces and take over the club together?’
“I’m still completely open to that, and I would be more than happy to speak to Sheikh Jassim or to Jim Ratcliffe or any other investor about how we could work together.”
Zilliacus even said he would also be willing to work with the Glazers, and went so far as to offer them a “minority position where they could continue to enjoy a nice cash flow”.
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United sources were perplexed by Saudi Arabian government official Alalshikh suggesting that the club was in discussions about a potential sale.
Alalshikh was linked with a possible takeover of French club Marseille two years ago and he has dealt with billionaire Rodolphe Saade, who also considered buying Marseille.
Saade is the chairman and chief executive of the CMA CGM Group, which recently acquired Freightliner.
Freightliner own land around Old Trafford that is central to United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s plans to build a brand-new 100,000-all seater stadium next to the club’s 115-year-old stadium.
Saade has met several times with Alalshikh, who was the owner of Spanish club Almeria until earlier this year and is best known in his country for bringing boxing bouts to Saudi.
Old Trafford taskforce leader Lord Seb Coe flew to New York as recently as July to sound out potential investors who could help foot the bill for the new stadium.
United have estimated that the cost for a new Old Trafford could be as high as £2billion.
Alalshikh resorted to a major climbdown on X after he sparked online hysteria about a possible takeover of United.
He tweeted: “My post about Manchester United’s potential sale meant one thing: the club is in an advanced negotiation phase with a new investor.”
“Just to clarify, I am not the investor, nor are they from my nation. I’m posting this as a fan who wishes the deal to happen, though it might not necessarily happen.”
The Saudi government has been accused of sportswashing through its boxing ventures and ownership of Newcastle United.
Read the full story HERE
But crucially, he believes the Glazers WOULD be willing to sell their position after already “making so much money out of the club” since the family’s takeover of the English football juggernaut in 2005.
Asked if he believed the Glazers could leave the club soon, he told MEN: “I would think so. I mean, they have already made so much money out of the club.
“They have not gelled well with the fans. I don’t think people want to forever be involved with assets where they get a lot of negative feedback as owners, as the Glazers continue to do.
“So I would think that if the price is right, yes, they want to sell. That’s how I would see it. I think that the time for that to happen will be pretty soon.
“But looking at the experience two years ago, I think they will demand a hell of a lot and they will ask for more than what the club really is worth. But then again, there are two ways to look at the club.
“One is what is it worth today and the other is what it can become. What can it be worth with the right decisions made? The program that I have to engage the club to perhaps a billion fans around the world, that is where I see the real value.
“That value is very high, which means that you could actually justify a higher price than what the valuation is today, because of the potential that fan base holds.”
In February 2024, police in Singapore issued an arrest warrant for Zilliacus, who is a resident in the Asian nation, accusing him of releasing misleading financial statements about the revenues of his e-commerce company Yuuzoo, which was listed on the country’s Stock Exchange.
But the businessman and the company’s shareholders issued their own counter-suit against accountancy giants EY, “seeking damages for losses caused by EY’s malicious actions”.
In the legal papers, which described Zilliacus as an “internet visionary”, Yuuzoo claimed the “false and malicious statements” made by EY prevented the company reaching the size it would have been able to acquire and demanded a “multi-billion” pound settlement.
The case remains ongoing.
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