By Kieran Maguire

18th Sep, 2023 | 12:00pm

Kieran Maguire drops Man United boardroom claim after new takeover twist

The Glazers may retain voting rights at Man United if the club is sold but not enough to impact major decisions.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the Glazers’ ‘tokenism’ in the takeover process.

As reported by Phil Brown, the Glazers are trying to convince Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS to let them retain voting power on the board if they agree to sell the club.

The Glazers have received bids from both Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe for the club, although it is understood that the Qatar bid is for 100 per cent of the club’s shares while Ratcliffe’s bid is only for the Glazers’ 69 per cent stake.

Despite the club being open to investment since November 2022, the Glazers are yet to proceed with either bid as they don’t match their £10billion valuation of the club.

Maguire believes the Glazers wanting to retain voting rights on the board is ‘tokenism’ as they won’t have enough influence to impact major decisions at the highest level.

“I think as far as the composition of the Man United board is concerned, it comes down to who owns the majority of the seats,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“If there are nine seats and there are two Glazers on it, then to a certain extent it’s tokenism.

“Their voices will be heard but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the remainder of the board will agree with them.

“It’s a bit like when I have a conversation with my wife about where to go on holiday – we both suggest somewhere and then agree to go where my wife would like to go.“

In other news, Kieran Maguire: Man United have ignored the glaring Jadon Sancho ‘red flags’