Man Utd shares plummet 22 per cent as nearly £600m is wiped off the club's value

Manchester United shares plummeted 22 per cent on Monday following news that Sheik Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani had pulled out of the race to buy the club and Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to pay £1.4billion for a 25 per cent stake.

The crash in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange wiped about £600million off United’s market value as investors reacted with alarm to the dramatic turn of events at Old Trafford over the weekend.

Shares recovered during the day but were still down by around £170m ahead of the close at 9pm UK time. At one point, the share price was at its lowest in four months.

‘The sharp drop in Manchester United shares reflects disappointment that a full sale of the club seems unlikely to go through,’ said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

A Qatari buyout would most likely have taken United into private ownership. However, the club is now set to remain on the NYSE under the continued control of the Glazer family, with Ratcliffe becoming a minority shareholder if his offer is rubber-stamped at a board meeting on Thursday.

Fans fiercely opposed to the Glazers still hope that Ratcliffe’s investment is the first step in a staged buyout that will see the INEOS chairman assume total control in future.

But Sheik Jassim’s decision to take his bid off the table brought an angry response from fans who are desperate to see the back of the American owners after 18 years in control.

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust have already raised their concerns, and The 1958 group issued a statement saying: ‘As we have said before, full sale only is what we stand for. The full removal of the Glazers’ 69 per cent shareholding. We will continue to protest until this vile family are removed from every fabric of our football club.

‘We are not interested in new share issues. We are only interested in the removal of Glazer — the disease that has crippled our club for 18 years.’

It remains to be seen what impact Ratcliffe’s arrival would have on United, with the British billionaire keen to take control of the football side of the business in return for his investment.

Club insiders insist that the power battle has had little effect on the day-to-day running of the club since Ratcliffe and representatives of the Sheik visited Old Trafford in March.

The separate delegations were given a presentation and an opportunity to ask questions about the business, but the rest of the sale process has been handled by US investment bank Raine.

Sources also say United could not have spent more than the £180m that went on new signings in the summer — principally Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount and Andre Onana — due to Financial Fair Play restrictions, although new owners could potentially have topped it up by £90m under the Premier League’s rules.