The Manchester United takeover is set to enter the next stage of negotiations with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani expected to hold face-to-face talks.
The two parties have already lodged bids for the Old Trafford club as they aim to succeed the much-maligned Glazer family as owners. It remains to be seen as of yet which bidder is the front-runner to seal a deal but it appears that they could be set to find out sooner rather than later.
According to the BBC, the next phase of the takeover process is set to get underway. A series of meetings are reportedly set to be held over the next fortnight when it will be decided whether the candidates will progress to the next stage.
Talks are set to be held in either London or Manchester and will include representatives from the the facilitators of a sale, the Raine Group, and United themselves. Once those talks are concluded then it will then become clearer over who could complete a deal.
There are still plenty of hurdles to overcome though to sign-off a takeover. Bidders will need to convince the Glazers to cash-in with it previously being suggested that disagreements amongst the American family due to their own intentions for the Red Devils has delayed a deal.
That has triggered concern among the United faithful that the Glazers could end up staying with the club. Red Devils’ icon Gary Neville has already expressed his concern at that eventuality coming to fruition, whilst he has also recently suggested that he would not approve of heavy spending under potential Qatari owners.
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Speaking on The Overlap, the former defender said: “There has to be a cost control on clubs otherwise you would get a disparity and it would take away its competitive edge. That's where the game needs proper regulation.
“Sustainability measures, real-time financial monitoring. Clubs should be allowed to invest to get up to the level of the top clubs. Newcastle's owners, Brighton's owners should be able to invest up to level to compete with Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man city, all the top revenue clubs.
“I wouldn't feel right if we had an ownership that came in and we started spending a billion or £800m every transfer market signing five best players in the world and we were winning the league every year.
“That's not right. That's not protecting the pyramid, that's destroying English football. so we do need cost controls in place.”
United have been up for sale since November with the Glazers confirming their intentions to move on. Avram Glazer in the meantime was present at Wembley as the Red Devils lifted the Carabao Cup against Newcastle with United Ten Hag boss confirming he was in the dressing room after the full-time celebrations.
