Finnish entrepreneur bids to buy Man Utd, Ratcliffe confirms second offer

Zilliacus wants to buy half of the club with the other half bought by fans, who will be part of club decision-making, reports the BBC.

Later on Thursday, Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe put in his second bid to buy the club after Wednesday’s confusion and extended deadline.

Interested parties had until 21:00 GMT on Wednesday to enter their bids before the deadline was extended.

On Thursday, an Ineos spokesperson said “Ratcliffe and Ineos can confirm we have submitted a revised bid”.

Ratcliffe and Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim were the only publicly declared bidders until Zilliacus announced his offer.

As yet there has been no confirmation from Sheikh Jassim but he is expected to submit a second bid.

Zilliacus said: “Any sport club ultimately should belong to its fans. My bid is built on equality with fans.

“The current development, where billionaire sheiks and oligarchs take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend.

“The current market value of the club is just under $3.9bn (£3.17bn). That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than $6.

“My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half.