Manchester United takeover: Saudi Arabia deny reports Crown Prince to launch £3.8bn offer for Premier League club

Rumours Mohammed bin Salman will buy Manchester United have been denied.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was said to be launching a £3.8billion offer to take control of the Premier League club.

But the Kingdom’s media minister, Turki al-Shabanah, used Twitter to quash the rumour. “Reports claiming that HRH the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman intends on buying @ManUtd are completely false,” he wrote.

“Manchester United held a meeting with @PIFSaudi to discuss sponsorship opportunity. No deal has been materialized [sic].”

The club is currently owned by the Glazer family, who paid £790million for the 20-time champions almost 14 years ago.

It is understood United’s American owners have no intention of selling any stake in the club.

United already have business interests with Saudi Arabia, with Saudi Telecom being the club’s official integrated telecommunications partner.

The club also signed a memorandum of understanding with the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia last year to help develop football industry in the country.

The crown prince has shown a big appetite for bringing sporting events to his country over the past couple of years, including motor sport and boxing.

In Jeddah in September, Callum Smith stopped George Groves in the seventh round to become the super-middleweight champion, while in the same city Juventus beat Milan 1-0 to win Italy’s Supercoppa Italian (the Community Shield equivalent) last month.