Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad and rival bidder, British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, had both submitted requests for more time to fine-tune their submissions for Manchester United ahead of the original deadline.

It's understood the Raine Group bankers overseeing the potential sale granted more time, but there is no known deadline for bids to be in.

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad was previously understood to be determined to not pay over the odds for the Premier League club, which current owners the Glazer family are believed to have valued at £6bn.

But the businessman's position is believed to have softened after a Qatari delegation visited Old Trafford in recent days, with talks lasting 10 hours.

Read more: The contenders to buy Man Utd

A delegation from Sir Jim's chemical firm INEOS visited the club last week, spending six hours attending meetings and touring the Old Trafford stadium and the Carrington training ground.

These are the only two known bidders for the club but Sky News understands there are several other financing proposals being presented to the Glazers.

An option for the Glazer family, who announced they were open to selling in November, is an arrangement in which they could keep control of United by agreeing to a minority deal.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who owns French club Nice, hinted he would not pay over the odds for the club.

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He told the Wall Street Journal: "How do you decide the price of a painting? How do you decide the price of a house? It's not related to how much it cost to build or how much it cost to paint.

"What you don't want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently," he said.