Manchester United supporters have been left shocked following Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus' proposal to buy the Reds.
Up until this point, only two bidders have stated public interest in buying United, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim. Wednesday marked the deadline for bids to be submitted however it is widely understood that was extended for both parties to allow them to mull over their proposals further.
In a surprising development on Thursday, Zilliacus put forward his vision for buying United. The proposal would see the Finn put half of the money forward while the other half would be stumped up by the fans who would then have the opportunity to have an equal say on matters involving the club.
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Explaining how the concept would work, Zilliacus wrote in a statement: "The current market value of the club is just under 3.9 billion USD. That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than 6 dollars.
"My bid is built on equality with the fans. My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half.
"If every fan joins it means less than 3 dollars per fan. Each fan who joins will have access to an app which the fan, from anywhere in the world, can use to participate and cast his vote when deciding on footballing matters relating to the club.
"No decisions will be taken that are not supported by a majority of the fan base." While the proposal sounds interesting on paper to some supporters, the majority of Reds fans on social media are sceptical about Zilliacus' ability to get the deal over the line.
Here is what a selection of them had to say on Twitter.
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