Under Pressure, The Glazers May Sell Part Of Manchester United

The Glazer Family is getting an ear full from the Manchester United faithful, and are kicking around the idea of selling a portion of the team.

That portion is not going to be as much as fans of the Premier League team may have hoped. The Glazers — who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — have owned 97% of the team since 2005.

The team hasn't lived up to expectations in quite some time, and the frustrations came to a head after the team dropped the first two games of the 2022-23 season in embarrassing fashion. Things look bleak as they travel to defending league champion Liverpool this week. Man U fans are planning protests for the game.

Things started to get really wild when Elon Musk entered the picture. The Tesla CEO offered an unsolicited tweet about his political leanings and then threw in a tidbit about buying Man United.

That got fans excited about the prospect of new ownership, but Musk admitted he was joking.

While Musk won't be buying the team, the Glazers are still open to selling a minority stake in the team. The entire team is worth an estimated $6 billion.

Bloomberg broke the news that the family was in preliminary discussions to bring a new investor into the fold. Who that could be hasn't been officially revealed, but here's a pretty good guess.

According to Sky News, Britain's richest man Jim Ratcliffe, the CEO of chemical company Ineos, is interested. The belief is Ratcliffe could be part of a group looking to buy into the team. Cycling coach Sir Dave Brailsford and former Manchester United players are also thought to be involved.

Ratcliffe had previously attempted to buy into the Premier League this summer, He offered £4.25 billion, but lost out to American businessman Todd Boehly.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

Written by
Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.