Man Utd takeover in chaos as Qatari bid WITHDRAW with delayed deadline and up to eight mysterious offers lined up

MANCHESTER UNITED’s takeover battle spiraled into chaos after a late change to last night’s deadline of 9pm.

Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday made an improved world record bid of around £5bn to buy the Premier League giants from the Glazer family.

The future of Joel Glazer and Avram Glazer as owners of Manchester United is still unclear

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The future of Joel Glazer and Avram Glazer as owners of Manchester United is still unclearCredit: AFP

But he REQUESTED that the deal’s organizers and US financiers Raine Group later extended the deadline by 48 hours and is now planning a revised offer.

Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was also prepared to put in his bid – also around £5bn – by 9pm but postponed it after Raine’s extension.

Raine has now indicated that there could be as many as EIGHT bids by tomorrow’s new deadline of 9pm.

Only one of them, the US hedge fund Elliott Management, has spoken out, while the Qatari sheikh and the British knight are still the main contenders.

Their latest bids will break the record £3.75 billion for the Denver Broncos, when the NFL franchise was sold last summer.

But it remains to be seen whether either offer will convince the Glazers – who have set a valuation of £6bn – to sell.

Unlike Ratcliffe’s petrochemical group Ineos, which wants to buy out Glazers’ 69 percent share, and Sheikh Jassim – which is considering a full takeover – Elliott is only trying to pass money on to potential bidders.

It is possible that other interested parties will also seek funding rather than actually taking over the club.

But by giving bidders an extra 48 hours, Raine suggests there are real options open to them.

However, it is believed that the top two bidders still harbor doubts about whether the Glazers will sell unless their colossal valuation is met.

United’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange rose more than four percent in early trading yesterday to reach a “market cap” of £3.33 billion.

As Sunsport revealed earlier this month, one option for the Glazers is to use outside funding to spin off the club’s commercial and merchandising arm into another arm of the club or simply take United off the market.