By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

24th Jan, 2023 | 4:07pm

Sources: Critical update after Apple and Facebook linked with world-record Man United takeover

Man United takeover operatives have deliberately sown and amplified false reports connecting a string of glamorous groups with what will likely be a world-record deal, Football Insider has learned.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Zara are among the household-name companies to have been linked with a takeover, which is being stage-managed by investment banking firm Raine Group.

Zara has publicly rebuked the link, while a mergers and acquisitions source has told Football Insider that Amazon and Facebook have at no point registered their interest.

The source claims that the erroneous stories were planted as part of an orchestrated campaign to illustrate the extent of United’s global appeal.

Football Insider was unable to acquire any definitive information regarding Apple, but the company’s reported desire to acquire domestic broadcast rights for the Premier League would almost certainly preclude them from negotiations.

That is under the terms of the same anti-competition statutes that blocked Premier League TV overlords Sky, then BSkyB, from completing a full buyout of United in 1999.

Football Insider understands that the same laws would, incidentally, also likely rule out Amazon, who will air Premier League matches until at least 2025.

Petrochemicals firm Ineos, owned by boyhood United fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe, are the only party to have formally confirmed their interest in buying United.

But a number of US-based private equity firms and the sovereign wealth fund of Dubai have also been linked since the Glazer family fired the starting gun on a takeover scramble in November last year.

Raine Group, who brokered the £2.5billion sale of Chelsea to a consortium fronted by Todd Boehly last May, want a deal done before the second quarter of 2023.

In other news, pundit verdict on Man United axing Aaron Wan-Bissaka after new development