Manchester United

The Qatari banker is regarded as the favourite to purchase the 20-time English champions from their current owners the Glazers, who signalled a willingness to sell the club towards the end of last year.

Sheikh Jassim's initial offer for the Red Devils, believed to be in the region of £4.5bn, was rejected by the Glazer family, who are thought to want as much as £6bn in order to sell.

Representatives of Sheikh Jassim travelled to Manchester last Thursday to visit Old Trafford and the Carrington training complex, and it is believed that discussions with Man United officials lasted 10 hours.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe them visited on Friday, with the British billionaire also in the running to purchase the club.

According to Sky Sports News, a world-record offer, which is debt-free, was made by Sheikh Jassim before Wednesday's 9pm deadline.

The report claims that at least five bids have been made, although it is unclear at this stage whether Ratcliffe's INEOS group submitted an offer before 9pm.

The Glazers, alongside Raine Group, the US bank instructed to deal with the sale, will allegedly take the next week to evaluate the offers that have arrived before making a decision.

"What's happening is some very well-paid bankers at Raine's headquarters in New York are looking at their emails now, checking out the bids, looking at the numbers, and they will be evaluating the bids and discussing with the Glazer family on what the next steps should be," said reporter Kaveh Solhekol.

"This is going to take a few days. I think there will be developments next week. We could find out next week whether there is going to be one preferred bidder or more than one preferred bidder and whether there will be another round of bids."

In the initial statement from the Glazer family last November, it was revealed that the owners were also open to taking on new investment, and it has been claimed that 'at least half' of the offers that have been made are from parties looking for a minority stake.

Over the last few weeks, various reports claimed that the Glazers were having second thoughts over a sale and were considering pulling the plug, even at this stage of developments.

However, a full sale is now expected to take place, with the potential new owner likely to be in place before the June transfer window opens for business.

A recent report claimed that Sheikh Jassim was prepared to 'overpay' for Man United following the discussions that his team had with senior club officials last week.

Ratcliffe, though, recently said that he will not pay 'a stupid price' for the club.