Manchester United owners, who own arguably the biggest football club in the world, has decided to now invest in the game of cricket as well as they have bought a team in the upcoming UAE T20 league which is a franchise-based competition of 6 teams in the Emirates.
It was only a couple of months back that the Manchester United owners had tried to buy a team in the IPL as well, but the bids that they had placed for the two new franchises based in Lucknow and Ahmedabad fell significantly short of the bids placed by the other parties. In fact, as it turned out, the bids placed by the United owners were the lowest out of all the bids that were placed for the two franchises.
The system of bidding for the two new IPL franchises was such that it was a lot about anticipation of the potential bid by the other parties and then trying to outbid them. It seemed as if the Glazers, who own United, had not done their homework before they placed their IPL bids. But, in the UAE, they got their deal done without any fuss and joined the list of some of the high profile owners who are already involved with the league.
Apart from Manchester United owners, Mumbai Indians owners are also involved with the UAE T20 league
Reliance Industries, owned by Mukesh Ambani, who run the Mumbai Indians franchise in the IPL are also one of the owners in the UAE league and apart from them, the KKR owners and one of the co-owners of Delhi Capitals are also in negotiations to buy the ownership rights. There have been interests from Australia too as people involved with the functioning of the BBL team Sydney Sixers are looking to buy a team in this new proposed league which is supposed to rival some of the biggest cricket leagues in the world.
Glazers might be investing in other sports, but they are getting heavily criticized for how they have been running Manchester United FC recently, particularly because of the way they handled the situation around their previous manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer whom the fans wanted to be sacked a long time back. United fans have also not been happy with the players’ recruitment process under the Glazers, as they often complain that the Glazers are not the owners who care about the club with their heart and soul.
