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Saudi Arabia has submitted a bid for British soccer club Manchester United PLC ahead of Friday's deadline, the Telegraph reported on Thursday.
Other private groups in Riyadh have made formal inquiries, the report added.
The Qatari royal family are readying an opening bid of roughly 5 billion British pounds ($6 billion) for the club, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
The report said a consortium including Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the country's former prime minister and ex-head of the Qatar Investment Authority, is putting the final touches on a proposal to acquire the club.
A Reuters report earlier said British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, a life-long supporter of the club and founder of chemicals firm INEOS, is a likely bidder, along with US private equity firms.
Twitter and Tesla owner Elon Musk has also expressed interest in buying the football club.
The potential seller is the US-based Glazer family, which bought the club in 2005 for GBP790 million.
(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
