MANCHESTER UNITED TAKEOVER - THE LEGAL ISSUES
In November 2022, the current owners of English Premier League club Manchester United (The Glazer Family) announced that they were considering selling the club. Although there are a number of interested parties, the two most public offers include one by British Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe and former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad-al-Thani. This microblog will explore these two bids and will examine the legal issues associated with each individual.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe is the current CEO of petrochemical company INEOS, and it is through INEOS which a bid to buy United will be made. INEOS has invested in sport previously and is also the owner of French Ligue 1 club Nice and Swiss Super League Club Lausanne. The INEOS bid is complicated by the fact it already owns these clubs. Article 5 of UEFA’s club competition regulations prohibit multiple teams controlled by the same person from competing in UEFA completions such as the Champions League and Europa League.
Although multi-club ownerships in football have become increasingly common (the City Football Group consisting of Manchester City, New York City and Melbourne City is one example), it is rare to see a multi-club model operate when two clubs are competing in the same competition. If both Nice and Manchester United were to qualify for next season's Champions League, for example, then unless INEOS could prove that the management structure of these clubs are separate, then only one of them would be allowed to compete.
It could still be possible for INEOS to own both Nice and Manchester United and have them compete in the Champions League. Not only has UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin suggested a softening of the rules, but there is also precedent for this. In 2017 RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg were able to compete in the Champions League together despite both being owned by the Red Bull Group because Red Bull was able to sufficiently separate the management structure of the two clubs. Some of the ways Red Bull was able to do this included by removing staff members that were Red Bull employees from the Salzburg board and by reducing the level of cooperation between Salzburg and Leipzig on matters such as scouting and player transfers between the two clubs.
Sheikh Jassim
Sheikh Jassim’s bid also presents complications in terms of multi-club ownership. Jassim is making the bid as a private individual. However, his wealth comes predominately from his role as Chairman of the Qatar Investment Bank (QIB). The QIB is 50% owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
The State of Qatar already owns French Ligue 1 Club Paris Saint Germain through Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which is a subsidiary of the QIA. Although Sheikh Jassim could suggest that the ownership of the two clubs is sufficiently separate since it is the QSI that owns Paris Saint Germain, not the QIA, the fact that QSI is a subsidiary of the QIA could prove problematic.
In addition to this, the fact that the bid is largely funded by Qatar’s Sovereign wealth fund presents problems from a human rights perspective. The Premier League recently announced a tightening to its Owners and Directors Test, prohibiting those involved in human rights abuses from becoming owners of Premier League clubs. Qatar has been criticised by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for its treatment of migrant workers during the construction of last year’s World Cup and its criminalisation of LGBTQ+ groups. A bid by Jassim could be seen as yet another example of sports washing, where states with poor human rights records attempt to use sport to legitimise their human rights abuses.
However, it is doubtful whether these restrictions on ownership will affect Sheikh Jassim. Not only is Sheikh Jassim making the bid as a private individual rather than as a member of the Qatari State, but the Premier League has also been open to investment from sovereign wealth funds with poor human rights records previously. In October 2021, Premier League club Newcastle United where bought by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. The Premier League stated that it accepted the takeover after ‘receiving legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United’ however, it seems incorrect to state that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not have some control over how its own sovereign wealth fund would be utilised. The Newcastle United takeover provides a textbook example of how a takeover by Sheikh Jassim could operate despite the controversies associated with his bid.
For more information about Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Shiekh Jassim’s bids, please see the following:
https://qz.com/qatar-bid-manchester-united-glazer-jim-ratcliffe-ineos-1850136144
https://www.espn.com.au/football/manchester-united-engman_utd/story/4911275/manchester-united-bidder-jim-ratcliffe-may-have-to-sell-nice-stake
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65128593