As a teenager, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was almost crushed scaling a wall to watch his beloved Manchester United play. Half a century later, one of Britain’s richest men is on the verge of buying a stake in English football’s most famous club and securing a seat in its boardroom.
For the past 12 months, Ratcliffe, founder of chemicals empire Ineos, has wooed Joel Glazer, United’s executive co-chair and a key member of the billionaire US family that owns the club. He has deployed a mixture of charm — describing the Glazers as the “nicest people” — and, unusually for a hard-charging entrepreneur, a willingness to take a minority stake in the club to get a deal close to the finish line.
The 71-year-old’s initial ambition to buy the club outright has given way to the proposal that United’s board is expected to discuss at a meeting this week. Under the unconventional deal, Ratcliffe would acquire a 25 per cent stake and assume effective control over all sporting decisions from managerial appointments to player signings.
Barring any final twists, the transaction is set to value United at more than $6bn, including debt, but less than $6.5bn, according to people familiar with the matter. The billionaire is hoping that becoming a minority shareholder will eventually open the door to a full takeover, the people added.
The purchase would draw a line under a protracted effort by the Glazers to sell or find new investors for a club they acquired in a £790mn leveraged buyout in 2005. Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, the only other suitor, pulled out of the running last weekend.
While castigating the Glazers’ 11-month hunt for new investment as a “complete shambles”, Andy Green, a board member at the Manchester United Supporters Trust, welcomed the prospect of Ratcliffe buying into the club. “It’s finally a little crack in the glass. You can see some change coming and that’s got to be good for United,” he said.
But with the club enduring a lacklustre start to the Premier League season, Ratcliffe’s ability to make a difference to the team’s fortunes on the pitch looks likely to be quickly tested.
Under the proposed deal, Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford — director of sport at Ineos and the mastermind behind British cycling’s triumphs at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics — and Joel Glazer would sit on a committee overseeing football matters, according to four people familiar with the matter. United’s commercial operations would remain under the Glazers’ control, although Ratcliffe, as a large shareholder and board director, would command some influence.
Having sway over football decisions through controlling the committee was Ratcliffe’s “price for investing”, according to one person familiar with the matter. Another said that the tycoon was aiming to make a mark quickly on the pitch to signal to fans that, despite the Glazers remaining as majority owners, his arrival would represent a break from the past.
“Ineos are in it for the glory — they don’t appear to be in it for the financial return. Having somebody in the boardroom who wants the sporting side to be better has got to be a good thing,” said Green.
The deal would create an unlikely marriage between Ratcliffe and the six Glazer siblings, who inherited United from their late father Malcolm, architect of the debt-funded buyout that many fans blame for the club’s struggles over the past decade.
Raised in a council house in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, Ratcliffe has amassed a fortune, pegged at £29.6bn by the Sunday Times rich list, hoovering up unloved assets from big oil companies. He once mortgaged his house to help with the purchase of a speciality chemicals company from BP.
The Brexit-supporting billionaire, who steered Ineos through the 2008 financial crisis despite clashing with its lenders, has more recently championed fracking in the UK. He has also accused the country’s competition regulator of being anti-business and attacked the government for raising taxes on North Sea oil producers.
Since forming Ineos in 1998, Ratcliffe has expanded beyond the chemicals businesses, oil and gasfields and refineries at the heart of his empire. He has assembled an eclectic collection of sporting assets, including the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team and French football club Nice. In December 2020, the group acquired a third of the Mercedes Formula One team.
Austrian entrepreneur Toto Wolff, who co-owns the Mercedes team, said that Ratcliffe was a “sparring partner” but one who would “put every resource behind” a team to achieve its objectives.
“Cut out all the bullshit, simplify and go for it. That’s something that I value in a business partner,” said Wolff. “We both absolutely hate bureaucracy and administration. Decisions need to be taken.”
By contrast, the Glazers, led by United’s executive co-chair Joel, have faced criticism for being ponderous in their decision-making, whether on player signings or upgrading Old Trafford, the club’s stadium.
Big decisions, including the search for outside investors, have often dragged on because some Glazer siblings are more attached to the club than others, according to several people familiar with the matter.
While the club has prospered commercially under the Glazers, rival Manchester City has eclipsed it as the dominant force in English football. United has been elbowed aside despite spending a net €1.3bn on new players over the past decade, more than any other club, according to Transfermarkt.
With the vast outlay failing to restore United’s fortunes on the pitch, fans may welcome an arrangement, however unorthodox, that would see the Glazers relinquish control of football decisions.
Should the deal go ahead, United has also discussed raising fresh funds to plough into the club, according to two people familiar with the matter. Selling additional stock in New York-listed United could allow Ratcliffe to increase his stake while injecting funds into the club, the people said. Details have yet to be agreed and a fundraising may not happen, the people added.
Ineos and United declined to comment.
But the more imminent prospect of Ratcliffe buying a minority stake raises questions over how the arrangements will work when a decision, such as whether to improve the stadium or the club’s Carrington training centre, cuts across both the football and commercial operations.
“It’s not an equal partnership. A 25 per cent shareholder doesn’t normally get to call the shots”, said Chris Blackhurst, author of The World’s Biggest Cash Machine, an account of the Glazers’ ownership of United due to be published this month. “It’s naive to think you can separate the sporting side from the commercial side.”
Despite his credentials as a life-long fan, Ratcliffe is not expected to be a constant presence at United, according to people who know him.
When not at home in Monaco, he regularly embarks on lengthy trips to remote corners of the globe. At one point during the negotiations with United, Ratcliffe dialled in via satellite phone from a month-long expedition in the Mongolian steppe, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports consultant who knows the Glazer family through his work with the NFL, reckons that the partnership has a strong chance of confounding sceptics.
“If they decide to do a deal as has been described, I think Joel will be an exceptional partner for Ratcliffe. He has the perfect temperament for this kind of thing”, he said. “He will stay in his lane.”
Brailsford is set to have the most involvement in the day-to-day oversight of United’s sporting operations, according to people with knowledge of Ratcliffe’s plans. A veteran cycling coach, Brailsford is best known for espousing a philosophy of marginal gains in which a series of tiny improvements lead to substantial success. Those who have worked with the 59-year-old describe him as an intense and demanding workaholic. “He’s a performance guy”, said one, pointing to Brailsford’s drive to push athletes and teams to greater success.
Yet Ratcliffe’s record as a sports owner is a chequered one. Swiss football team Lausanne, which Ratcliffe bought in 2017, was relegated soon after and has achieved little since. French side Nice, which Ineos acquired in a €100mn deal in 2018, has fallen short of its target of competing in the Champions League. Mercedes’ last F1 constructor’s championship came in 2021, while the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team has not recently challenged for top honours.
“I don’t think it’ll change anything,” Blackhurst said of the prospective deal. “Ratcliffe’s record in sports ownership is poor, and it’s still the Glazers’ money.”
Additional reporting by Arash Massoudi and Sylvia Pfeifer