David Beckham insists he has not held talks to become an ambassador for Sheikh Jassim’s bid to buy Manchester United. The England icon served as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but has not been asked to get involved in the Qatari proposal to purchase the Premier League outfit.
Beckham admits he has a “long-standing” relationship with Qatar that dates back to his spell with Paris Saint-Germain in 2012-13. The French side are owned by Qatar Sports Investments.
Sheikh Jassim is one of the main bidders for United, alongside British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe. There has been some expectation that ex-Red Devils star Beckham would back the Qatari bid given his previous involvement with the country’s sporting endeavours.
But the 50-year-old says talks over an ambassadorial role have not taken place. He refrained from criticising the controversial current owners, the Glazer family, and says the person who cares most about the stricken club should be picked as the new owner.
Beckham told CNBC: “At the moment there’s been no discussion of that, but everybody knows that I’m a Manchester United fan and I’ve been very vocal about the situation that is happening at Manchester United, and that’s a situation that’s been happening for a number of years.
“I grew up at Manchester United from a very young age with a lot of stability. We had the same manager, [Alex] Ferguson, and the same owners.
“Manchester United will always be Manchester United. It will always be one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“Now we need to get back to that for the fans, for the players, the coaching staff, the manager. At the moment, there is no stability and we need to get the talk to [being about] on the field, rather than off the field.”
He added: “I want to see an ownership group take over who will actually take the club back to what it should be. I’m not saying the past owners have done a bad job because we’ve still been very successful on the field.
For me, it’s the right time for somebody else to take over.”
Pressed further on if he is part of the Qatari deal, Beckham insisted: At the moment there has been no discussion about that. I have a long-standing relationship with Qatar due to my involvement with PSG. I played there and won the Championship.
“Obviously there is going to be a connection there and people talking about my involvement in Manchester. You put all the things together – Manchester, myself, plus PSG – and there’s a connection.
“So people will obviously be talking about that but there has been no discussion at the moment.”
Beckham was then asked if a deal for Sheikh Jassim to buy Man Utd was likely. He responded: “You know, something is going to happen. There will be a takeover – I think it’s the right time.
“We all have our own opinions on who should take over. My opinion is that it is whoever cares about the club the most and is going to take it back to where it should be.”
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