Man Utd confirm Sir Jim Ratcliffe deal as Glazers finally agree to takeover plan
Manchester United have finally confirmed Sir Jim Ratcliffe has purchased a 25 per cent stake in the club in a deal worth around £1.3billion.
Final negotiations around the deal with the Glazer family, who will remain majority shareholders in the club, took place earlier this week. The partial takeover is still subject to ratification from the Premier League, which could take up to six weeks, but none of the parties involved expect there to be significant issues.
British billionaire Ratcliffe will take control of football operations at Old Trafford despite the Glazers retaining the largest shareholding. The American family have been in charge of the club since their much-criticised leveraged buyout in 2005, which has led to continued fan protests throughout their 18-year reign and a remarkable decline in footballing success since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013.
Ratcliffe, 71, plans to offer United supporters hope of a brighter future, with the founder and chief executive of petrochemical conglomerate INEOS working hard for much of the past year to strike a deal. After the Glazers announced that they would be "exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale" in late 2022, Manchester-born Ratcliffe battled with Qatari banker for Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani for a majority takeover.
But with the six Glazers siblings, who share control of the Premier League giants, unable to agree on an asking price to fully cede control, Ratcliffe has agreed to initially become a minority shareholder. Sheikh Jassim pulled out of the race as he only wanted full control of the club.
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The agreement will give INEOS control of the football department at Old Trafford, with their director of sport Sir Dave Brailsford expected to play a significant role in reviewing United's operation. The CEO of INEOS Sport, former Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain bigwig Jean-Claude Blanc, is also in the running to becoming the club's new chief exec, with Richard Arnold announcing his departure several weeks ago.
While Erik ten Hag's position as manager is not understood to be in immediate jeopardy - despite Saturday's 2-0 defeat away to West Ham a new nadir - football director John Murtough is expected to follow Arnold out the door in the near future.
Ratcliffe, who visited Old Trafford and Carrington in March and has had regular phone and video calls with Joel and Avram Glazer, also wants to make significant changes to United's transfer policy, having spent more than £1.5bn on players since their last league title win, and the virtual meetings with Joel Glazer have involved discussing key personnel changes.
Avram and Joel Glazer, along with their four siblings, were unable to agree on a full sale (AFP via Getty Images)Considered the second-richest man in Britain, Ratcliffe is a boyhood United fan who was in Barcelona for their 1999 European Cup triumph. Since founding INEOS, he has ventured into sport with interests in football, Formula 1, rugby, cycling, sailing and more.
INEOS is the principal partner of F1 team Mercedes-AMG Petrona s and the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team were rebranded from Team Sky in 2019.
The same year, Ratcliffe and co became majority owners of French side Nice, who are sitting high in the Ligue 1 table. INEOS also has partnerships with the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team and the company supported Eliud Kipchoge in becoming the first person to run a marathon in under two hours in October 2019 - although that was not made an official record.
Ratcliffe, who grew up in Failsworth, Oldham, has been able to say very little publicly since formally entering the takeover race in January this year, but it is not the first time that he's attempted to purchase a Premier League club. In April 2022, the Birmingham University graduate announced his intention to buy Chelsea after former owner Roman Abramovich was ousted.
Get involved! Will Sir Jim Ratcliffe bring the glory days back to Manchester United? Let us know in the comments section.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is joined by Sir Dave Brailsford on INEOS' sport team (Michael Steele/Getty Images)Speaking at an event hosted by the Financial Times long before the Glazers announced their strategic review, Ratcliffe was asked about his failed Chelsea bid as well as his hopes of ever buying United. In response, he said: "Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family whom I have met.
"I've met Joel and Avram and they are the nicest people, I have to say, they are proper gentlemen. If it had been for sale in the summer then, yes, we would have probably had a go following on from the Chelsea thing. "But we can't sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available. We have an exciting sporting franchise, but the one thing that we don't have is a Premier [League] team."
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Ratcliffe has not been all kind about the Glazers, though, notably criticising a number of key decisions following the retirement of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson - who Ratcliffe will reportedly seek advice from - a decade ago. In an interview with the Times in 2019, he scathingly declared: "They haven't got the manager selection right, haven't bought well.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe visited Old Trafford in March, holding talks with club chiefs (PA)"They have been the dumb money, which you see with players like Fred. We won't look elsewhere until we have had a good run here (at Nice). We need to find out how to be successful before you ever want to write a big cheque. It's quite difficult," Ratcliffe admitted.
He went on to say: "United have spent an immense amount since Ferguson left and been poor, to put it mildly. Shockingly poor, to be honest. We have a different approach here to be moderately intelligent about it; try to do it more grass roots, trying to locate young talent.
"Some clubs seem to have an ability to do that, Southampton, Lille. United have done it really poorly. They have lost the plot there somehow."
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