David Beckham thinks that it is time that the Glazers sold Manchester United and ended their controversial ownership of the club.
Manchester United‘s owners announced that they were seeking strategic alternatives for the club ownership last November, sparking a bidding war between Britain’s Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim.
At various stages of the bidding process, both have been named as frontrunners to buy the club, though everything has seemingly gone quiet on a potential takeover, with the last offer – believed to be worth £5 billion – being submitted by Sheikh Jassim over seven weeks ago.
United legend and Inter Miami owner, David Beckham, admits he wants the ownership situation at his boyhood club ‘resolved’, using rivals Manchester City as an example of how their owners have invested in the club.
“As a fan and ex-player, I just want it resolved,” Beckham told David Ornstein of The Athletic. “There has to be a decision (regarding the ownership). Whoever is running your club, you want them to be passionate, be involved, make the right decisions, bring in the right players and invest in the club. Because the club does need investment, whether it’s the training facility, stadium, on the field… these kinds of big things need to be made and changes do need to happen, especially when you see the likes of Man City and what they’re doing.
“It’s not just about what they’re winning. You can see that Man City are building for the future, not just from season to season. They’ve got stability with Pep [Guardiola], who I am in awe of.
“We were the top of the tree, we were winning everything, the ones who were successful, the ones where the players wanted to come. Luckily, we still have that Manchester United pull that existed when I went there. We want that back and the sooner a decision can be made, the better.”
Asked if it was time for the Glazers to leave Manchester United, he said: “I think so.
“I think it’s purely because the fans want it. Once you lose the fans, especially at a club like Manchester United, it’s hard to get them back. Obviously, they (the Glazers) have achieved a lot, and financially, the fact we’re even talking about the numbers of what Manchester United will sell for shows the success they’ve had. But there needs to be change. We’ve all seen that, we all know that.”
The 48-year-old – whose Inter Miami side have recently completed the capture of Lionel Messi – suggested he would be interested in taking a role in the running of United, but insisted he ‘hasn’t been approached’.
“I have a lot going on here at the moment and my focus has purely been on Miami and everything that goes on in my business,” he said. “But I haven’t been approached and I suppose any involvement with Manchester United would mean the world to me, going forward. But who knows?
“We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks or months. Hopefully, a decision gets made and if I’m involved in any way… if not, I’ll be a United fan and just do what all the other fans are doing — turn up and watch our team.”
