Saudi bigwig Turki Alalshikh hints at Manchester United investment
Saudi bigwig Turki Alalshikh has hinted at the potential of fresh investment into Premier League club Manchester United.
A cryptic message on X, formerly Twitter, overnight suggests the club is in the “advanced stage” of finding new capital, just 18 months since Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchased nearly 30 per cent of the Red Devils.
The Ineos billionaire Ratcliffe said his club, which he co-owns with the Glazer Family and public shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange, could be the most profitable in the world when speaking to the Times this week.
But his arrival has been controversial, with hundreds of jobs lost and on-field performance not improving.
Manchester United ownership change
“The best news I heard today is that Manchester United is now in an advanced stage of completing a deal to sell to a new investor,” Alalshikh said overnight. “I hope he’s better than the previous owners.”
No further information has been released since but there have been reports surrounding a potential trip to Saudi Arabia by Manchester United during this season that could net the Premier League side £10m.
The club could do what Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami did last season and play in the Riyadh Season Cup – which Alalshikh backs through Riyadh Season – with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal.
“Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football,” Ratcliffe told The Business podcast, produced by The Times and The Sunday Times.
On cuts, he said “the costs were too high”.
“There are some fantastic people at Manchester United,” he added, “but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated. I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no-one’s ever given me a free lunch.”