Manchester United: Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe buys shares

Glazers remain majority owners

English billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s entry into Manchester United is perfect. As the English record champions announced on Christmas Eve, the entrepreneur will take over up to 25 percent of the shares and invest a further 300 million dollars (270 million euros) in the Old Trafford Stadium of the club, which is currently in crisis. Ratcliffe is estimated to pay more than 1.4 billion euros for the shares, as the BBC reported on Sunday. The Glazer family from the USA, who are unpopular with many fans, remains the majority owner.

Most recently, according to media reports, the Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani withdrew his offer to buy the club completely. In return for his investment, Ratcliffe and his company will take responsibility for sporting affairs. The boss of the chemical giant Ineos has already been involved in cycling and sailing. In the football business, the company joined OGC Nice in 2019, of which Ratcliffe is the 100% owner. However, the question arises as to how much longer.

Ineos exit near Nice? Multi-club ownership is not a critical issue at first

The 71-year-old comes from the Manchester area. “As a local boy and a lifelong supporter of the club,” Ratcliffe said he was very happy about joining Man United. It doesn’t seem entirely unlikely that he will get additional shares in Man United through Ineos. This will also determine whether Ratcliffe sells his shares in OGC Nice. A sum of just over 90 million euros is circulating in the event of a complete sale. For now, Ratcliffe also has to deal with the critical issue of multi-club ownership, as he only owns a quarter of the shares in Manchester and the two clubs cannot ensure a conflict of interest in the European Cup, as happened in the 2018 encounters between RB Salzburg and Leipzig was criticized. The Premier League clubs voted down a possible ban on switching from a foreign club to an English one with the same owner in November.

In Ratcliffe’s opinion, Man United have not been living up to their potential recently. In the Champions League, Manchester United recently lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich as bottom of the group and was completely eliminated from the European Cup this season. Dutch coach Erik ten Hag’s team is only eighth in the Premier League after losing 2-0 at West Ham United on Saturday. In English media reports there is also intensive speculation about the future of the still unsuccessful ex-Ajax coach.

“Sir Jim and Ineos bring a wealth of business experience as well as significant financial contributions to the club,” said United board members Avram Glazer and Joel Glazer. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Premier League, among other things.

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