Who is Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Qatari sheikh candidate for the takeover of Manchester United? – Liberation

Twelve years after the takeover of Paris-Saint-Germain, a new Qatari sheikh could get his hands on a giant of world football, the English club Manchester United. Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani officially announced on Friday that he was a candidate for the takeover of the British team. But if he is the son of one of the richest men in Qatar, having access to the billions of dollars required to settle the 4.5 billion euros demanded, this young forty-something is rather discreet. Little personal information circulates on his account.

Presented – communication requires – as “a lifelong Manchester United fan”, Sheikh Jassim is closely linked to the personalities who have made Qatar one of the main investors in the world. Coming from the al-Thani family, which dominates the political and economic life of the country, he has chaired the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) for years.

Born in 1982, the year this banking establishment was created, and trained in the United Kingdom at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, Cheikh Jassim joined the bank’s board of directors at a very young age. The QIB will become under his presidency a leading Islamic financial institution, offering sharia-compliant products and having branches reserved for women. The institution, whose assets amount to 50 billion dollars, announced in 2022 profits of more than a billion dollars, up more than 12% year on year. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani also sat until 2017 on the board of directors of Credit Suisse, of which Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is the second largest shareholder.

Fruit of chance (or not), the potential future leader of the English club also has a link with the Qatari acquisition of Paris Saint-Germain. He is one of the fifteen children of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar from 2007 to 2013, who created the sovereign fund behind the takeover of PSG. The former Prime Minister, who is at the head of a business empire that made him a billionaire, is also known to be a football fanatic.

Sheikh Jassim’s father is also close to the former Emir and father of the current Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who was instrumental in Qatar’s rise in the sports world.

Anglo-Saudi competition

His profile, and no doubt also his connections, won over the elite of this small country on the Arabian Peninsula. “If he made this candidacy public, you can be sure that everyone, starting with the emir, wants it to work”, noted the head of a multinational that has been working with the country for decades. And the gas state continues to show its appetite for football. «Qatar hosted the World Cup and must now follow”adds the same source on condition of anonymity, public comments are not always well received in Qatar.

Still, Sheikh Jassim faces fierce competition to get hold of the Mancunian “Red Devils”, especially from English billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, current owner of OGC Nice. According to the English press, a third offer should even arrive on the table from Saudi investors.