Manchester United's change of ownership has been a bumpy road, with The Sun revealing that the handover of power at the Red Devils club may be delayed until November this year. By then, Sheik Al Thani, a young representative of a prominent Qatari family, will spend 6 billion pounds (about HK$60 billion) to take over the United scepter from the Glasha family and usher in a new era.
Sheikh Al Thani and British businessman Ratcliffe have been locked in a fierce battle for the sale of Manchester United since the Glasha family announced it last November. The originally expected May date for the completion of the deal is no longer in sight and despite the fierce competition, the outcome is still unknown. Sheikh Al-Thani's masterstroke is that he wants to buy 100 percent of United, while the Glasha family wants to keep part of the shares, and this difference in stance has become a bottleneck in the negotiations between the two sides. As for Ratcliffe, he was willing to let the Glasha family hold a stake, but could not compete with the Qatari consortium in terms of the offer, resulting in the slow progress of the deal.
