Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus submits bid for Manchester United - but wants fans to buy half
A Finnish entrepreneur has submitted a bid to buy half of Manchester United - and says he wants fans to chip for the other half.
Thomas Zilliacus, the founder and chairman of social media group novaM, says it will cost Reds supporters just $3 (£2.44) each because "any sport club ultimately should belong to its fans”.
The 59-year-old businessman, from Helsinki, has thrown his hat in the ring to buy the troubled club from the Glazer Family, who have owned United for almost two decades.
The Finn, said to be a long-term United supporter, favours a ‘Nordic model’ that would see his consortium buy the club and then sell shares to supporters worldwide.
If he were to take over the club, Mr Zilliacus says fans will "have ownership and an equal say in all issues that relate to the football decisions".
Supporters, he says, will be given a say on major issues such as ground redevelopment and squad building, but not team selection.
“The current development, where billionaire sheikhs and oligarchs take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend”, Zilliacus said.
“The current market value of the club is just under $3.9bn.
"That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than $6. My bid is built on equality with the fans."
Zilliacus says his group will finance half of the asking price, and will ask the fans, through a new company that he says is being set up for this specific purpose, to fund the other half.
"If every fan joins it means less than $3 per fan", he said.
The entrepreneur plans to give fans an app which they can use to cast votes on football matters relating to Manchester United.
Zilliacus has previously been involved with HJK Helsinki and ice hockey champions Jokerit in Finland.
He wants to buy United through XXI Century Capital, an investment firm owned by his holding company.
Although an outsider and a latecomer to the race to buy United - becoming the third party to publicly declare an interest after Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani – Zilliacus claims his investment group should be considered serious contenders.
The cut-off for bidders was initially 9pm on Wednesday, 22 March, before an extended deadline was set.
“I actually saw that the deadline was last Wednesday, literally on Wednesday morning and then I had to act very, very fast,” the former chief executive of Nokia in Asia said.
“I called the bank [Raine], told them we would like to participate, Raine said it was kind of late and they weren’t sure it made much sense.
“They discussed it internally and got back to us and said ‘OK, here’s an NDA [non-disclosure agreement], sign it then we’ll discuss the next steps after that’.
“We signed the NDA, put in a bid in general terms on Wednesday but then the deadline was extended to Friday, which gave us two more days to put in a revised bid, which had an actual number of what we were bidding, and that’s how it’s played out."
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