The Manchester United board is expected to meet on Thursday to vote on Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s 25 percent bid, according to The Athletic.
There are still some details to be finalised between the British billionaire and the Glazers.
However, a shake-up of the football structure at Man United is anticipated if a majority of the 12-man board votes in favour of Ratcliffe.
The board members will be allowed to dial in remotely on Thursday for the meeting, allowing those in Manchester, Washington and Tampa to avoid transatlantic flights.
They include the Glazer siblings – Joel, Avram, Kevin, Bryan, Darcie and Edward – Man United chief executive Richard Arnold and chief financial officer Cliff Baty.
Legal counsel Patrick Stewart and independent directors Robert Leitao, Manu Sawhney and John Hooks – who are responsible for representing the minority shareholders – will also be in attendance.
Plans to appoint a sporting director have also been discussed if Ratcliffe succeeds with the partial takeover, and former Liverpool chiefs Michael Edwards and Julian Ward, who enjoyed success in helping build the Reds’ squad under Jurgen Klopp, have been discussed.
Paul Mitchell, who established his reputation for recruitment work at Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and RB Leipzig and was recently the sporting director at AS Monaco has also been linked with the job.
Newcastle United’s sporting director Dan Ashworth is also a candidate, and changes are also expected to be made to the chief executive and football director positions, currently occupied by Arnold and John Murtough, respectively, if the OGC Nice owner gets the votes in his favour.
Ratcliffe’s earlier bid to take a 51% stake in Man United failed after he offered to buy exclusively Class B shares, the type held only by the Glazers, which are worth ten times the voting power of the Class A shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Investors threatened legal action as they believed such a proposal was unfair because it deprived Class A holders of any prospect of financial uplift.
The six non-Glazers on the board rejected the bid, causing significant tension between the two parties, including Arnold.
However, this issue would be solved by Ratcliffe buying both Class A and Class B shares, which he has opted to do as well as keeping the Glazers on board for the time being.
