• It could mean that a 'preferred bidder' is declared by Raine - the investment bank conducting the sale.
• As the process reaches a critical stage, the scrutiny on both these prospective owners is also intensifying.
Image: /BBC
Prospective owners for Manchester United have been told they have until 21:00 GMT on Wednesday to submit second, revised bids for the club as the takeover saga accelerates.
Just how strict this deadline is, and whether any other bidders emerge, remains unclear.
But it could mean that a 'preferred bidder' is declared by Raine - the investment bank conducting the sale - very soon, with it then granted exclusivity on the more thorough due diligence process that would take place.
It means the only two publicly-declared bids - Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim and Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe - will have had just a few days to consider the data and information they discovered last week during visits to Old Trafford and the club's Carrington training complex.
Both parties are understood to have held positive meetings with United officials and both are thought to remain committed to a takeover and expected to make improved, more detailed bids.
But while the amount that both have so far offered has not been disclosed (with reports both are in the region of £4.5bn), they are clearly far below the £5-6bn valuation that the club's American owners - the Glazers - have established.
Whether they - or any other prospective bidders - are able to submit an offer that persuades the Glazers to sell is the next key question. If not, and with United's fortunes improving significantly in recent months under manager Erik ten Hag, the Americans may well yet decide to retain the club and perhaps instead look to sell a minority stake to the likes of US hedge fund Elliott Investment Management.
Interestingly, in a newly-released interview with the Wall St Journal that was conducted before last week's visit to Old Trafford, Ratcliffe said: "What you don't want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it subsequently", a clear signal that he is determined not to overpay for the club he says he supported as a boy growing up in Manchester.
He also said his interest in the club would be "purely in winning things", calling the club "a community asset", not a financial one.
Ratcliffe and his advisers will hope these sentiments, and his attendance in person on Friday when visiting United - unlike his rival Sheikh Jassim - will persuade fans of his intention to be a visible, engaged presence who has the club's interests at heart. Ratcliffe was also accompanied by his team of sports 'experts', including Ineos Director of Sport - the former Team Sky cycling chief - Sir Dave Brailsford.
But as the process reaches a critical stage, the scrutiny on both these prospective owners is also intensifying. The environmental campaign group Greenpeace has labelled the bidding war a "dirty derby of 'sportswashing' between entities linked to fossil fuels". It points to the fact that Ineos is a major producer of plastic and supports fracking, and that the Qatari bid has been partly financed by oil and gas in one of the world's largest fossil fuel economies.
Both bidders deny suggestions of 'sportswashing', emphasising a deep affection for the club lays behind their attempted takeovers. The Qataris have also tried to emphasise that their bid will be debt-free and is by an individual, separate from the government. But critics also say that as a member of the country's ruling family and son of the former Prime Minister, Sheikh Jassim's bid is effectively an attempted state takeover. The risk, they say, is that United is then used to help distract from the country's human rights record and discriminatory laws, drawn into geopolitics and foreign policy.
Both bids must also overcome concerns over links with other European football clubs, with a subsidiary of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund owning French club Paris St Germain, and Ineos already owning both Nice and Lausanne.
However many United fans will simply want to see the end of the Glazer's hugely controversial 18-year reign.