Thomas Zilliacus bid for Manchester United in March, but he is unhappy with the price tag the Glazer family have placed on the club.
Manchester United is “more than a club”, according to Thomas Zilliacus, who bid to take over the Premier League giants in March.
Zilliacus failed in his bid for the club, which would have included the consortium he led to creating a vehicle for fans to purchase up to half of the shares.
The 69-year-old, who is the founder and chairman of novaM Group, suggested that failure was down to some members of the Glazer family being unwilling to sell.
Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani are the bidders left in the race.
Speaking to Stats Perform, Zilliacus said: “Manchester United is more than a club. It’s an institution that is known all over the world.
“I’ve lived in Asia for a long time and Manchester United is as famous as Big Ben out in Asia.
“So it’s an institution that has been there long before any of the current investors were born and it is going to be there long after we all have died.
“So I think it’s more of the privilege of being a caretaker of an institution that if you become an owner of a club like United.
“I think whatever happens, it needs to be something that is beneficial to the club and its fans. And like I said, I think both these bidders have a genuine interest to improve the club and obviously are also willing to put in a lot of money.”
Zilliacus did not hide his frustration at the bidding process.
He explained: “I didn’t like the process in the way it was run. To be honest, I don’t think it was run in a very professional manner.
“I think that probably reflects the fact that the Glazer family has six siblings and I don’t think that they all have the same view on what they want to do.
“What I would normally have expected is that if you have a deadline for bids, and you get serious bidders as they got there, at least three that we know in public; Sheikh Jassim, Jim Ratcliffe, and myself, then you sit down and negotiate with those bidders.
“What instead happened here was that there was, again, a new round and again, a new round kind of starting from scratch.
“That was one reason but the main reason why we then finally withdrew was, frankly, financial. I felt, and my consortium felt that the price simply went up too high.
“It’s a business that has to be profitable at the end of the day. And I think with the price tag that the Glazers put on the club, I think it is very tough to make a profit.”
Asked why he wanted to take over at Old Trafford, Zilliacus said: “Manchester United has one of the biggest, maybe the biggest, fan base in the world.
“So the fan base was something that, in particular, we felt was very interesting. The other part is, of course, the club in itself. It’s a club that I’ve been following since I was 11 years old. I’m not investing because I’m a fan, but it helps when you like the club as well.
“Last but not least, the UK as a market is very interesting because of the substantial money that is coming from media rights. So those would have been the main reasons.”