Man Utd takeover expectations on Glazers' deadline day as Qatar 'plan £5bn bid'
It won't end with Jim White in a yellow tie and Big Ben's bongs, but this particular deadline day could end up being the most important one in Manchester United's history.
Friday sees the 'soft deadline' for interested parties to submit their offer to buy the club from the Glazers, with all offers needing to be in by 10pm GMT before they can be considered.
The unpopular American owners are said to be seeking around £6bn for the club they took over in 2005, and with interest in United from around the globe extremely high, there are several different offers expected to be put on the table.
Interested parties are likely to show their hand at some point during the day, with the process set to have United fans as transfixed as any match in the club's history.
There still several questions to be answered though, and here's what to expect.
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Will Man Utd have new owners after the 10pm deadline?
No. This isn't like a club needing to get a deal for a player over the line before the closure of the transfer window, there is a lot more to it than that.
This deadline is merely for interested parties to submit their offer, in whatever form that takes.
So if you do have a few billion knocking around right now then you'd better hurry up and get moving.
Avram and Joel Glazer could leave United 18 years after their family first took over the club (Getty Images)Are all the bidders looking to take full control of the club?
No. As reported by the Mail Online, the bids are expected to fall into three different groups.
The first is the group of bids that are for the full ownership of the club, with the Glazers looking for around £6bn to sell United in its entirety. That is widely believed to be their preferred outcome, although that could all change depending on the offers they receive.
The bidders in the second group will be looking to buy a stake in the club, taking minority ownership and injecting cash into it in order to help with costs.
Then the third group will be offering investment and commercial deals, the type United have many of already.
It is possible for those in the second and third groups to come together and form a consortium capable of raising the money to enter the first group.
Who do you think Man Utd's new owners should be? Tell us in the comments section
What happens to the bids after the deadline passes?
As with Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital's deal to take over at Chelsea last summer, US merchant bankers Raine Group are involved in what happens next.
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It is Raine's job to take the bids that come in, across all three of the groups mentioned above, and do United's due diligence for them.
They will study the bids, the figures behind them and sift out the serious contenders from the time-wasters, then pass their findings on to the Glazers.
Offers will still be considered after the deadline, but with the owners seemingly looking to make a fairly swift exit this whole process could reportedly take as little as six weeks.
Qatar hope to continue their heavy involvement in football following last year's World Cup (Football Association of Wales)Who will be bidding?
The big question.
At the time of writing the only party to have confirmed that they are bidding for the club are British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos group, who told the PA news agency last month: “We have formally put ourselves into the process.”
So, a clear run for the Manchester-born businessman and United fan? Not quite.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already thrown his hat into the ring (VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images)As you'll no doubt have read, Qatar's interest in taking over at United is extremely serious, and Bloomberg report that a group from the Qatar Royal family are set to place an opening bid of £5bn for the club.
They say that a consortium which includes former Qatar prime minister and former head of the Qatar Investment Authority, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, is ready to make a serious move for United, and given that the Gulf State possesses so much wealth they would be confident of blowing everyone else away.
Well, almost everyone.
Groups in Saudi Arabia are also in the race, and would be confident of getting together the money needed for a takeover.
The Saudi groups have reportedly already been given access to United's financial records, but there would be the question over these groups being separate from the Saudi Public Investment Fund which owns Newcastle.
Qatar vs Saudi Arabia is looking likely to be the heavyweight battle for United, but there is still interest in the club from Asia and America.
Around five bidders are thought to be looking to buy the club as a whole, and so take a place in the first group mentioned above. There will then be numerous bidders in the second and third groups.
United are the subject of interest from all over the world (Getty Images)What will the outcome be?
We don't know yet, but we will know a lot more by Friday night.
It is likely that anyone who bids for the club will make a public statement in order to raise their profile and, frankly, bask in the limelight that United offer.
That is what we saw with Chelsea when the interested parties were eventually whittled down before Boehly-Clearlake's purchase, but the overwhelming feeling appears to be that we are heading for a Qatar vs Saudi Arabia battle for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Who do you think Man Utd's new owners should be? Tell us in the comments section
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