Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in training session with his team in Doha
Sunday Express Sport can reveal that while Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson took advantage of the warmth of Doha to fine tune his players, there was feverish work going on behind the scenes.
Aware that Qatar, with their bid for the 2022 World Cup in mind, has gone football crazy, feelers were put out by United’s owners the Glazers about attracting Middle East investment – or finding a potential buyer.
The Glazers may have saddled the club with debts of £700m after their controversial takeover in 2005 but they know they could make a huge profit if they sold, with even conservative estimates placing the club’s present value at around £1.2billion.
United’s short stay in Qatar provided the Old Trafford money men with the perfect opportunity to attract fiscal interest in the club.
Oil and gas reserves have transformed the country into one of the richest in the world.
It is seeking a higher profile identity and sees sport as the vehicle to help meet that ambition.
No expense is being spared in winning a bid for the 2022 World Cup – so the chance of either being involved in or owning a club of United’s magnitude has great appeal to Qatar’s wealthy aristocracy.
It would also provide the perfect foil to one of their Emirates rivals Abu Dhabi where Sheikh Mansour owns
United could easily have undergone warm weather training a lot closer to home but the six-and-a-half hour
plane journey served two purposes, to get away from the snow and put out some money markers.
The Glazers will only sell for the right price. In the meantime the club are hitting the road attempting to raise aminimum of £500m in bonds to help pay off some of the debt which has substantial interest payments.
United are confident of meeting their target and could even better it as they look to ease the strain of servicing the debt.
But it’s believed that the Glazers are still susceptible to a big offer for the club which would allow them to leave with a sizeable profit.
That’s where United’s training trip to Qatar will almost certainly become very signifi cant in the future.
United, though, will not be cashing in on Wayne Rooney. Manager Ferguson insists the player is happy and there is no contract issue surrounding the player.
There had been reports suggesting that Rooney’s advisers were looking for a lucrative new deal for the England player.
But Ferguson stated: “No one has said to me that his contract is up in such and such a time. It’s never been mentioned so I assume that everything is OK.”
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