Sky Sports reporter responds to suggestion Sheikh Jassim could return with new offer for Man Utd

A Sky Sports reporter has responded to the claim Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani could return with another offer for Manchester United.

On Saturday it emerged that Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim had withdrawn from the United bidding process, effectively putting to bed an 11-month takeover saga in the process.

Instead, British petrochemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe will pay £1.3billion for a 25 per cent of United, with the deal needing to be agreed at a board meeting this week.

Sheikh Jassim's offer, allegedly valued at more than £5billion, was believed to be the only one for a 100 per cent stake in the club.

As per Sky Sports, Sheikh Jassim offered the Glazers almost double the market capitalisation while he was a cash buyer, promising to clear all debts. He also would have allegedly invested another £1.4bn for the stadium and the team.

However, the Qatari’s valuation was seemingly not sufficient for United’s controversial American owners, the Glazer family, with Sheikh Jassim subsequently withdrawing from the process.

There have been suggestions that Sheikh Jassim could still return to the Glazers with an improved offer, despite having formally withdrawn from the process.

However, Sky Sports Journalist Kaveh Solhekol claimed that while he could not rule out the Qatari re-entering the process, there was “no indication” that was set to happen.

Sky Sports’ Solhekol said: "At the moment they're telling us they're out and that's it, but you can't totally rule out a scenario whereby the Ratcliffe deal falls apart and that gives an opportunity for Sheikh Jassim to re-enter the process.

"There's no indication any of that's going to happen right now, but Sheikh Jassim does have the finances to buy Manchester United at what he believes is a premium price."

Meanwhile, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano insisted that Sheikh Jassim had no plans to U-turn on his decision to withdraw from the United takeover race.

Romano claimed on X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter: "Sources close to Sheikh Jassim guarantee that his decision to leave the negotiations for Man United is 100% guaranteed and confirmed. No current plans to change that.

"Glazers family, already informed last week after final bid rejected."

Ratcliffe and his company INEOS are expected to run United's football operations as part of the deal to purchase a 25 per cent stake.

The British businessman initially wanted to buy all of the Glazers' 67 per cent shareholding.

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