Manchester United’s powerbrokers gathered in Switzerland this week for one of their regular executive-committee (ExCo) meetings.

The ExCos, typically held each month, are led by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and usually feature at least one of Joel and Avram Glazers, INEOS leadership and United chief executive Omar Berrada.

Advertisement

The atmosphere had been lifted by the Premier League victory over Sunderland last Saturday, which eased pressure on head coach Ruben Amorim, although the Old Trafford hierarchy remain conscious of the febrile mood among supporters.

At United, however, things are rarely quiet for long.

On Wednesday, Ratcliffe made his first extensive public comments about Amorim’s position since March, saying he had “three years” to prove he was a great coach.

Then, that night, Turki Al-Sheikh, a Saudi Arabian government official and sports promoter, posted on social-media platform X that United were close to being sold. Al-Sheikh’s message sparked a flurry of speculation in the following 48 hours over possible suitors, although the club have remained silent on the subject.

Here, we explain the context of this week’s reports and what they could mean.

What is United’s current ownership structure?

United’s shares are split into two classes: A and B. There are currently 56.1million class A shares and 116.3m class B ones in issue, but only the class A shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are available for public trading.

Those class A shares confer just 10 per cent of the voting rights of the class B ones, the latter of which are pri