£115m Henry Mauriss bid to buy Sheffield United accepted, says American billionaire

Mauriss, who made his money through credit cards, had tried to buy Newcastle United from Mike Ashley, but missed out to the Saudi Investment Fund.

Instead he has turned to Saudi-owned Sheffield United.

Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud bought a 50 per cent share of the South Yorkshire club for £10m from Kevin McCabe in 2013 when the Blades were in League One.

He exercised his right to buy out McCabe's shareholding, a deal which was confirmed only after an acrimonious court battle in September 2019, shortly after the club had returned to the Premier League.

That cost him a further £5m, as well as committing to buy other assets connected to the club, including the training ground.

The Prince also owns French second division club Chateauroux, Belgian side Beerschot, India's Kerala United and Al Hilal United in the United Arab Emirates.

Although the Blades repeatedly broke their transfer record in the summer following promotion to the Premier League in 2019, and again in the January 2020 and summer 2020 transfer windows to sign Sander Berge and Rhian Brewster, the Prince was criticised for his lack of investment both in the team and infrastructure around the club.

He resigned as chairman in April 2021.

Tensions around investment in the squad and control over how it was directed were a big factor in the departure of Chris Wilder, the manager who took the Blades from League One to ninth in the Premier League over the course of four seasons, the previous month.

They suffered a relegation back to the Championship which was already well on its way shortly after Wilder's departure, and are now sixth in the division, hoping to secure a place in the play-offs after a poor start to the season under the short-lived management of Slavisa Jokanovic.

Sheffield United were last night unable to confirm Mauriss's claim.