British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has officially become a shareholder in Manchester United. As the English football record champions announced, after the Premier League, the English Football Association FA also gave the green light to purchase the 27.7 percent stake on Tuesday.
This completes the takeover of the 71-year-old, who will gain control of football operations in the future. “Becoming co-owner of Manchester United is a great honor and comes with great responsibility”said Ratcliffe, “While this marks the completion of the transaction, it is just the beginning of our journey to return Manchester United to the top of English, European and global football.”
According to Joel Glazer, chairman of United and a member of the Glazer family, the former main owner, the collaboration with Ratcliffe is intended to “Enable a bright future for Manchester United”. Manchester announced the deal on Christmas Eve after long negotiations. Ratcliffe, head of the chemical company Ineos, cost 1.02 billion pounds (around 1.2 billion euros) for the shares.
Ratcliffe is said to be fine-tuning the squad
According to media reports, Ratcliffe is already working on the squad for the coming season. Investments in the venerable Old Trafford are also planned. Recently there have been rumors that the billionaire wants to have a new stadium built. Manchester United is only sixth in the Premier League. The places for the Champions League, from which the club was already eliminated in the preliminary round this season, are five points away.