The possibility of the Glazer family, who have been majority shareholders in the Red Devils since 2005, remaining at the helm of the club does not please investors and has led to a stock market crash.

Manchester United lost 14% on the stock market on Monday - the biggest intraday drop since May last year - after ESPN reported that the Glazer family may remain the owners of the club, citing a source close to the process.

According to the American channel, Avram and Joel Glazer are increasingly confident that they will be able to secure outside investment that will allow them to remain owners of the Red Devils.

The stock market plunge comes against the backdrop of five months of high volatility, after the Glazers, who have owned United since 2005, began exploring a sale in November. The possibility of selling the majority stake led to a rise of 62% in one week.

Later, a possible sale to the Saudis in February pushed the shares to an all-time high. Since then, negotiations have been up and down, with investors trying to understand the shape of the deal and whether or not the family, which is not very popular with the fans, will leave the leadership of the club.

Currently, the Glazer family holds around 67% through class B shares and controls around 96% of the total voting power. Traders holding minority class A shares fear that a partial sale would mean that an exit from the capital would be off the table, while the potential for the shares to rise is limited, reports Bloomberg.

According to a report published this weekend by the Financial Times, the family that owns the Red Devils is asking the current interested parties to increase the value of their offers and prove that they would be able to complete the proposed deals. In the running is British multimillionaire Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, chairman of Qatar Islamic Bank and son of the former emir of Qatar.

There are also other smaller offers, such as the Carlyle group, which is in talks to become a minority shareholder in the club where Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes play, according to a report by Sky News.

Shares in the club that wears red in Manchester and is listed in the United States went down 11.84% to 19.53 dollars.

Source: Jornal Negócios