Qatar-based bid for Manchester United takeover confirmed

The rumors were true and the bid was confirmed on the "soft" deadline day for such offers to be submitted: Qatar presented an offer to acquire 100% control of Manchester United.

The bid led by the chairman of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, was submitted on Friday night right before the deadline set up by the Glazer family (current Man Utd owners) of 10 pm GMT.

According to reports published in different media outlets, the offer is meant to allow the Qatari consortium to have "100% control" of the club." This is the only (public) offer submitted to the owners of Manchester United along with one coming from petrochemical mogul Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of INEOS.

The statement released by Sheik Jassim says that "the bid plans to return the club to its former glories both on and off the pitch, and above all will seek to put fans at the heart of the football club once more." It also includes a segment that states "the bid will be 100% debt-free," while shedding some light about "Nine Two Foundation [being the institution] to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium, and the wider infrastructure."

The bid is "estimated at €4.5B," according to information obtained by L'Equipe and released in Saturday's print edition of the newspaper.

Sheikh Jassim is the son of the former Qatari prime minister. He was educated in Great Britain and is said to be a supporter of Manchester United. His Nine Two Foundation is named after the famous Man Utd "Class of 92" which featured the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, and Phil Neville among others.

As far as PSG is concerned, it looks like QSI (owners of Paris Saint-Germain) and QBI (prospective owners of Man Utd) are separated enough to not consider both part of a conflicting interest clash that would put one of the two organizations in peril of getting removed from European competitions in the event of both teams qualifying for the same tournament (say, the UEFA Champions League).

This sets in motion a process that is expected to take several weeks, with offers from Saudi Arabia and the United States also presumed to have been submitted before the "soft" deadline arrived on late Friday.