Sheffield United takeover could be affected by new rule to avoid Man U, Burnley repeat

Any prospective buyer of Sheffield United will not be able to use a full leveraged buyout to take control of the club whilever the Blades are in the top-flight, after the Premier League introduced a new rule to avoid a repeat of the debt-laden situations at Manchester United and Burnley.

Both clubs were taken over - the Red Devils by the infamous Glazer family and Burnley by US investors ALK Capital - using the leveraged mechanism, which effectively sees the club service the debt to buy itself.

As a result the Old Trafford side, who were debt-free when the Glazers took over, now owe hundreds of millions of pounds. Burnley’s chairman Alan Pace, a managing partner of ALK, was set to buy the Blades from Kevin McCabe had he won his bitter High Court battle with Prince Abdullah back in 2019.

Since then, the Prince has signalled his desire to sell the Blades but has seen deals agreed with American Henry Mauriss and Nigerian Dozy Mmobuosi both stall. The Athletic later revealed that Mauriss, who also attempted to buy Newcastle, is serving a jail sentence in California for wire fraud while Mmobuosi has refused to call time on his bid to buy the Blades despite Prince Abdullah moving on to other interested parties.

Consortiums from America and the Prince’s homeland of Saudi Arabia are known to be interested in United but no prospective buyer will be able to leverage the purchase price of the club onto United itself, under welcome new rules introduced by the Premier League at its AGM last week. United were represented at the meeting as one of the 20 top-flight clubs in 2023/24, as a vote was passed to cap leveraged buyouts at around two-thirds of a club’s total value.

In a statement, the Premier League said: “As part of the League’s ongoing review of the owners’ and directors’ test, clubs unanimously agreed to amend the test to prohibit fully-leveraged buyouts.”

Although it is unclear whether any of the prospective buyers of United planned to arrange their takeovers in such a way, the banning of fully-leveraged buyouts can only protect the original United’s long-term interests - and probably leave fans of their Manchester namesakes wishing the change had been made a lot sooner.