CEO of Tesla and one of the world’s richest men, Elon Musk, has tweeted about his interest in buying Manchester United from current owners, the Glazer Family. He made the tweet after enumerating his opinions on a political ideology discussion on Twitter.
Elon Musk was joking about buying Manchester United, but he’s a fan still
This is coming while he’s still neck-deep in his legal battle with Twitter, after his failing takeover of the social media platform. One of the questions most people are eager to ask in the aftermath of this tweet is, ‘Can Elon Musk afford to buy Manchester United?’ And the answer to that is yes.
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Forbes valued Manchester United at $4.6 billion in May (having generated over $633 million in revenue last year); and as at Tuesday, the club had a market capitalization of $2 billion in the stock market. Also, taking into account Manchester United’s recent woes on the field of play, the club’s value would most likely decline a bit. So certainly, buying the club would be a piece of cake for Elon Musk, who is valued at $260 billion.
But Elon later came out to declare that he was making a joke, and wasn’t thinking about owning a sports club yet. He also mentioned that he was a Manchester United fan while growing up. Recall that Manchester United’s current owners, the Glazer Family, bought the club for $1 billion in 2005. Since then, the club has sustained its steady growth, football glory, strong fanbase, and stable finances until recently. In the last __ few years, they haven’t been able to win a single trophy.
They also experienced their worst finish in a Premier League season after __ years last year, and have started this season as their worst in __ years. Overall, their performances on the pitch as well as their dressing room problems have not gone as good as their finances; and fans are now clamouring for a change of ownership.
Fans have increasingly become adamant on ousting the Glazer Family from the club, and are planning a series of protests to that effect. Meanwhile, it is believed that the Glazer Family are not as keen as the fans on selling the club. They have reportedly received some offers including one from the Saudi Arabian conglomerate that later purchased Newcastle United, but they haven’t decided on selling yet, although there are reports that they might sell a minority stake at the club.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is also interested in purchasing the England club Manchester United
Also, another personality interested in taking charge of the English football giants is the billionaire engineer and the richest man in the United Kingdom, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Jim Ratcliffe is the current owner of Ligue 1 club, OGC Nice, Swiss Super League Club, FC Lausanne-Sport, and was one of the front-runners in the bid for Chelsea earlier this year, before Todd Boehly’s consortium won the race.
He is worth about £12 billion, and his recent advances have given up his disposition about owning a Premier League club. Sir Ratcliffe is actually a native of Greater Manchester, and as such grew up as a fan of Manchester United.
A few days ago, one of his spokespeople told the media that “if Manchester United was for sale”, he (Sir Jim Ratcliffe) was interested. He made this known after rumours of the minority stake sale started circulating, and it’s believed that Sir Ratcliffe could snap up that opportunity.
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