[M]The club[/M] also [M]signed a memorandum of understanding[/M] with the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia last year [M]to help develop football industry in the country.[/M]
Monday morning brought a heavy dousing of cold water to a story that had got Manchester United fans hot under the collar, though it feels like a tale that has some distance left to run.
From the frying pan of the Glazer family's controversial ownership into the potential fire being taken over by Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a buyout of the world's biggest football club would have been monumental not just in sporting terms but also as a landmark geopolitical story that would almost certainly have spawned protests way beyond the green and gold scarves of the early Glazer years.
By way of a brief recap, Saudi media minister Turki Al-Shabanah put distance between the kingdom and speculation surrounding a takeover of the Old Trafford club with a few choice tweets in the early hours of Monday.
“Reports claiming that HRH the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman intends on buying Man United are completely false,” Al-Shabanah tweeted from a verified account linked to his position in government. It would appear a fairly formal denial, though Saudi Arabia doesn't have the best record in those recently, having also denied carrying out the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi until all the incontrovertible evidence piled up, resulting in the blaming of 'rogue elements' for a torture, murder and suspected dismemberment that is believed to have taken place within the Saudi consulate itself.
Al-Shabanah tweeted that United had held a meeting with Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund “to discuss sponsorship opportunity" but no deal materialised. So there was, at the very least, a small fire from which this smoke emerged, and even though there are those who doubt the substance of any Saudi denial, it must be acknowledged that buying out a Premier League club doesn't necessarily fit with the kingdom's policy on sporting investment.