The Saudi government has officially denied reports the country’s ambitious Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as the MbS, intended to buy UK football club Manchester United.
Saudi media minister Turki al-Shabanah said on Monday that reports in the British media over the weekend suggesting that Salman was preparing an offer of £3.8-billion ($4.9-billion) for purchase of Manchester United FC was “completely false”.
The Sun newspaper said in a report on Sunday that MbS was desperate to own MUTD, a club seen by many as the most popular in the world of football.
The report said the American owners of the British club have been shuttling to Saudi Arabia over the past months to discuss a final deal. It said MbS had neared the purchase in the summer but negotiations stopped after it emerged that MbS ordered the assassination of a prominent Saudi journalist in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Shabanah said that trips by members of the Glazer family to Saudi Arabia was aimed at negotiating a sponsorship deal with the Saudi wealth fund.
“Manchester United held a meeting with PIF Saudi to discuss (a) sponsorship opportunity,” Shabanah wrote on social network Twitter, insisting that no deal had been materialized between the two sides.
PressTV-Bin Salman wants to buy Manchester United
Faced with a growing public relations crisis, Saudi Arabia is now planning to drop a media bombshell by acquiring England’s top football team, Manchester United.
Bin Salman, a 33-year-old son of reigning Saudi monarch King Salman bin Abdulaziz, has splashed billions from his country’s oil-generated cash to introduce himself as a supporter of reform and modernization in Saudi Arabia.
The young prince’s reported offer for MUTD is much higher than normal takeover bids for Premier League football clubs.
Sources in the kingdom have revealed that MbS is trying to buy the club so that he can outdo the members of United Arab Emirates ruling family who own the other prestigious football club in the northern English city, namely Manchester City.Source: presstv.com
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