Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus is emerging as one of the bidders for Manchester United.
The Red Devils are officially up for sale, with The Raine Group taking bids from various parties.
Zilliacus is the owner of novaM Group, a new social media group, and has now pledged to become the owner of United with the help of its supporters.
He stated, "Any sport club ultimately should belong to its fans. The current development, where billionaire sheiks and oligarchs take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend."
He has added on his vision: The current market value of the club is just under 3.9 billion USD. 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 dollars. My bid is built on equality with the fans.
"My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half. If every fan joins it means less than 3 dollars per fan. Each fan who joins will have access to an app which the fan, from anywhere in the world, can use to participate and cast his vote when deciding on footballing matters relating to the club. No decisions will be taken that are not supported by a majority of the fan base."
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