Football investment expert Alexander Jarvis discusses Manchester United’s reported sale, the potential £5bn price tag and which global investors could buy the club.
Manchester United sale talks always attract a lot of attention, but should recent claims by football finance expert Stefan Borson be taken seriously?
Speaking on talkSPORT, Borson suggested that Manchester United are currently up for sale, although the process hasn’t been made public.
“My understanding from somebody, a senior person in the game, told me that there is a process and that they are for sale,” he said.
“You would question why they wouldn’t make it public, although when they last made a process public, that of course ended with a slightly disappointing outcome. They may be trying something different by not making it formal, but they are now accepting that now is the time.”
Claims of a potential sale are likely to raise the heartbeats of Manchester United fans around the world, many of whom have protested against majority owners, the Glazer family, for decades.
Frustration has intensified recently after a difficult run of results left the Premier League club in the relegation zone heading into the international break. However, without the club making it public that it is for sale and with Borson not revealing his sources, the claim is difficult to verify.
To shed some light on the situation, Insider Sport spoke to Alexander Jarvis, Founder of sports investment firm Blackbridge Sports LLC, which has been involved in deals with European clubs, including Benfica.
While there has been no official confirmation from Manchester United or the Glazer family, Jarvis believes the possibility of an off-market sale process shouldn’t be dismissed.
The sports investment expert suggested that public statements about a club’s availability don’t always reflect what might be happening behind the scenes.
“In my experience, most football club owners will listen to the highest bidder, even if they say publicly that the club isn’t for sale,” Jarvis explains.
“I’ve seen it time and again. These conversations usually happen off-market, and most people never get access to the deal. Similar to the recent Liverpool minority stake.”
The Liverpool deal Jarvis references is the recent investment by 1892 Holdings, a consortium led by Amit Bhatia and backed by several high-profile investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The group agreed to acquire a minority stake in Liverpool from Fenway Sports Group, which retained majority ownership and operational control of the club.
What would it cost to buy Manchester United?
Despite failing to return to the heights achieved under Sir Alex Ferguson on the pitch, the club has grown commercially. Manchester United announced record annual revenue of £677.6 million for the 2025/26 financial year.
The club is also planning to build a new 100,000-seater stadium, at an estimated cost of around £2 billion. The project could create further opportunities to increase revenue, as FC Barcelona and Real Madrid‘s experiences show.
Real Madrid reported operating revenue of €1.22 billion for the 2025/26 financial year, with the renovated Santiago Bernabéu accounting for 41% of the club’s total operating revenue. Stadium-related income has more than doubled compared with 2018/19, the final season before renovation work began.
Borson said the Glazers believe United’s ability to generate revenue is largely unaffected by on-pitch performance and estimated that a potential sale could be worth approximately £5 billion.
However, Jarvis tells Insider Sport that putting an accurate valuation on the club is particularly difficult given its global standing.
“The Glazers are shrewd sellers. They’ll try to get as much as the market will pay,” he said.
“I wouldn’t put a valuation on United because there are so few clubs with that kind of global following, and they rarely come up for sale.”
Jarvis pointed to Manchester United’s listed share price and the amount Sir Jim Ratcliffe paid for his minority stake as useful reference points. However, he explained that any potential buyer would also need to consider how the existing debt would be handled.
With those factors in mind, Jarvis believes a takeover could reach unprecedented levels in football.
“I’d say it could be the biggest deal ever in football,” he says.
Who could afford the club?
With Manchester United’s global appeal, the potential buyer pool could attract interest from several different parts of the world. Jarvis says that Gulf-based investors could be particularly well placed to make the highest offer.
“If I had to pick where the highest bid would come from, I’d look to the Gulf,” he says.
He also identifies private American investors, consortiums and groups with sovereign backing as potential candidates.
While Jarvis believes an American group may be less likely to submit the highest bid, he stresses that it would be wrong to rule them out.
His assessment aligns with the range of interest seen during Manchester United’s previous takeover process. In 2023, Ratcliffe and Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim emerged as rival bidders, with the latter seeking to acquire 100% of the club.
There has also been speculation about potential Saudi interest in United. However, recent developments have raised questions about the direction of some of the country’s overseas sports investments.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, for example, has said it will stop funding LIV Golf after the 2026 season due to a change in its investment priorities.
Jarvis offers some encouragement to supporters hoping for a change of ownership, however.
“United has global appeal. The pool of people who can afford it and fund it properly after completion is small, but you only need one buyer willing to meet the Glazers’ price,” he concludes.
