Simon Jordan ridicules ‘irony’ of United fans celebrating possible £6bn takeover by Qatari investors

Simon Jordan has ridiculed the ‘irony’ of Manchester United fans celebrating the potential takeover of the club by Qatari investors, after spending much time calling to take back ‘our club’ from the Glazer family.

The TalkSPORT presenter criticized United fans, saying it would be ironic if the club were taken over by a “rich Middle Eastern consortium or state” with the fan base eager to regain control of the club from its unpopular American owners. .

Jordan suggested that United fans “undoubtedly” engaged in “vitriol” against four main rivals Newcastle and Manchester City, which are owned by Emirati and Saudi investors respectively.

MailOnline broke the story on Tuesday night that a number of wealthy people from the oil-rich state hope to make a bid for the club before the mid-February deadline.

However, some sections of the club’s fan base raised concerns that the club could be used as part of a ‘sports laundering’ project, should the Red Devils be purchased by the Qatari investment group.

Unpopular owners of Manchester United’s Glazer family will look to sell for more than £6bn

United fans have been calling to get their ‘club’ back for some time and the clamor has intensified this season.

Simon Jordan claimed that there is an “irony” in the calls from United fans, stating that they simply want an owner who “gives you exactly what you want”.

“They won’t be able to have any talk about Man City ownership or Newcastle ownership if they get a rich Middle Eastern consortium in or state,” Jordan began.

‘All the vitriol that Man United fans were no doubt involved in will have to be scrapped.

‘There is an irony, isn’t there? “We want to recover our club, we want to recover our club.”

Man United fans have been clamoring for the Glazer family to sell the club for some time, and the calls intensified this season, following their controversial and highly leveraged takeover in 2005.

As such, the announcement that they were looking to sell was met with optimism by fans.

Noted United supporter and Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe seems destined to be the main rival to any Qatari bid, and was the first to publicize a desire to buy the Red Devils.

But Jordan was quick to criticize the intentions of the group of Qatari investors who Sportsmail confirmed are ready to bid for the Premier League titans.

“I understand more than anyone that sport is a business, but when states own soccer clubs, that’s not a business, it’s about something other than investment politics, it’s influence politics.”

Manchester City was bought by the Abu Dhabi United group in 2008

Amanda Staveley (L) owns 10 percent of Newcastle, with 80 percent owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund

“That’s a direction of travel that’s very different from someone saying, ‘I want to be in sports,’ like I did, or saying, ‘I want to be in sports because I want to make some money.

“Those you can accept a little more easily than ‘I want to get involved in the sport because I want to take advantage of a major asset from a particular country and use it as an influencer.’

Even if the Glazers were to accept an offer from the investor group, their ownership of the club would still require Premier League approval, and disapproval is likely to arise over Qatar’s human rights record.

Sportsmail also confirmed that there is not believed to be a problem with a Qatari bid for United, despite Qatar Sports Investments owning Ligue 1 side PSG.

The pool is separate from QSI and the money will be in the form of an individual fund rather than a sovereign wealth fund.

There is confidence that Qatar’s ownership of PSG will not cause any problems.