• Football

United owner Malcolm Glazer dies at 85

Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer has died at the age of 85.

Glazer, who controversially bought United in 2005 for £790 million, also owned the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who announced his death on their website.

Under his ownership United won the Premier League five times, as well as the Champions League in 2008, however Glazer's takeover leveraged the club with a £500m-plus debt and was bitterly opposed by fans.

He had been in poor health since April 2006 when a pair of strokes left him with impaired speech and limited mobility in his right arm and leg.

"The thoughts of everyone at Manchester United are with his family tonight," a club spokesman said.

Glazer, whose net worth was estimated at £2.6 billion, appointed his sons Joel and Avram as joint chairmen of United's board, and the family's ownership of the club is not expected to change. Malcolm Glazer was not a member of the United board, while his other children - Kevin, Bryan, Darcie and Edward - are club directors.

The Glazer family controls the majority of the club shares, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012.

The Buccaneers, who won a Super Bowl under Glazer's ownership in 2002, said a succession plan is in place that will assure the franchise remains in the family, with his wife, Linda, and children continuing as owners.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Owner/President Malcolm Glazer at the age of 85: http://t.co/hhSLb3Ld42 pic.twitter.com/n17v2P2SvP— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@TBBuccaneers) May 28, 2014

Born in Rochester, New York, the son of a watch-parts salesman, Glazer began working for the family business when he was eight and took over the operation as a teenager when his father died in 1943.

As president and CEO of First Allied Corporation, the holding company for the family business interests, he invested in mobile-home parks, restaurants, food service equipment, television stations, real estate, natural gas and oil production and other ventures.

His net worth is estIn March 2010, American business magazine Forbes ranked him as the world's joint-400th richest person, estimating his net worth at $2.4 billion (£1.4bn).

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