Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS' Man Utd investment explained | OneFootball

After the news broke that Sheikh Jassim of Qatar had pulled his bid for Manchester United off the table in October 2023 - a decision that could drive him to invest in another Premier League club - it was all but confirmed that Sir Jim Ratcliffe had won the race to invest in the Red Devils. Sections of the Old Trafford faithful were unhappy with the news of Ratcliffe’s takeover, with the majority favouring the eye-watering prospect of the Qatari’s cash. The astronomical bid from the Middle East was worth a whopping £5 billion - with a further £1.4 billion pledged to the redevelopment of both facilities and the playing staff at Old Trafford - in return for 100% control, but the Glazers valued the club at closer to £6 billion.

Thirteen months on from the Glazer family putting the club up for sale, a deal was finally completed and confirmed, with Ratcliffe acquiring a 25% share of the club in return for £1.2 billion. While there are lots of figures circulating about his alleged net worth, The Sunday Times Rich List have him as the second wealthiest person in the United Kingdom with assets totalling close to £30 billion. This level of investment and the backing of someone who has built up a significant fortune are likely to benefit a football club that has always scored highly thanks to their large fan base which is situated all around the world.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe's deal

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his company, INEOS, have bought a 25% stake in United - reducing the Glazer's total share to 49% - that includes having sporting control of the club. The football operations and all sporting decisions will now be overseen and undertaken by INEOS, giving them the deciding vote in on-field matters such as transfers, player contracts, and who stands in the dugout. The structure of United's ownership is a little more confusing than other clubs. The club split their shares into Class A and Class B - Class B shares are worth 10 times the voting rights of their Class A equivalents, which are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, with the Glazers owning all of them. However, if any of the Glazers do part with their Class B shares, they automatically convert into the less influential Class A shares.

When the deal was announced, it was revealed that Ratcliffe had acquired 25% each of both the Class A and Class B shares. It was previously reported that Ratcliffe may have a clause inserted in the deal that guaranteed the Glazers had to give up their majority shares to INEOS in a set number of years, giving them full ownership of the club. This doesn't seem to be quite the case though, but it has emerged that Ratcliffe will get first refusal if the American family choose to sell more of their Class B shares in the next 12 months - as per The Telegraph.

INEOS is a global chemical company, the fourth-largest in the world, with additional operations in fuel, packaging and food, construction, automotive, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and professional sports. Organised into around 20 standalone business units, each with its own board and operating almost entirely independently, they produce chemical and oil products that are used across industry and everyday life. INEOS is a conglomerate - a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries under one corporate group - of businesses Ratcliffe bought between 1998 and 2008, but in recent years he has delved into sports, making his mark in sailing, F1, cycling, football, and rugby to name but a few.

The sailing team is called INEOS Britannia, to become the first British winner of the America’s Cup in 2021 and will try again in 2024. In cycling, the company acquired Team Sky in 2019 and rebranded them to Team INEOS and then INEOS Grenadiers, winning the 2019 Tour de France and both the 2020 and 2021 Giro d'Italia. In 2020, they went on to launch into the world of Formula 1, as they became principal partners of Mercedes AMG F1 Team, signing a five-year agreement to own a third of the team. Mercedes is now owned in three equal parts by Mercedes-Benz Group AG, INEOS and Toto Wolff - who is also Team Principal and CEO.

INEOS said they wanted to make United "the number one club in the world once again", but what will they do to keep that promise? Ratcliffe will bring members of his team to implement the changes he wants on the United, led by former Juventus chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc - rumoured to be in-line to take over of CEO at the Red Devils - and Director of Sport at INEOS Sir Dave Brailsford, who's job it will be to employ a sporting director - with Newcastle United's Dan Ashworth in the hot seat - and a possible head of transfer strategy. Ratcliffe himself has also promised to commit $300million of his own money to fund improvements to Old Trafford and the club's Carrington training ground.

What this means for the Glazers

For the United faithful who have been campaigning for the removal of the Glazers from Manchester, this is unfortunately not the news they wanted to hear. The signs, marches, and chants demanding that the Glazers leave Old Trafford have been a staple of United's recent history - with the campaign to get the Glazers out even stretching overseas, as United fans flew a banner over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium during an NFL game - and will now most likely be one of the future too. The family used to own roughly 69% of the Red Devils, with the rest of the ownership mainly going to non-family fellow investors such as Lindsell Train, Ariel Investments, and Eminence Capital. The Americans are unpopular with many because of their leveraged buyout of the club in 2005 plunging United into £660m of debt, with half of that borrowing placed on the assets and the club itself.

Now though, the Glazers will stay involved on the financial side of the club, making decisions on any matter that doesn't take place on the pitch itself. The bonus for those glass-half-full United fans is that finally the board will be re-structured, putting football people with football knowledge in charge of making football decisions - something that has been missing for a very long time on the red half of Manchester. It may not be the full sale a majority of the United faithful were after, but it's certainly a start and may prompt for better decision-making on the transfer market.

Other clubs that INEOS have stakes in

This isn't the first time that Ratcliffe and INEOS have delved into the world of football, as they own two other football clubs in Europe. United fans will be keen to learn how their club might fair under the new owners, so looking at how INEOS have got on in their other football ventures is a good way to gauge their future prospects.

In 2017 Ratcliffe purchased FC Lausanne-Sport, now a Swiss Super League football club. More simply known as LS, the club is based in Lausanne, the capital and largest city of the Swiss French-speaking canton of Vaud - situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, it is located about 38 miles northeast of Geneva. Formerly known as Lausanne-Sports FC, the club are seven times champions of the top division, although the last came in 1965, before going bankrupt in 2003 and reforming as Lausanne Sport a year later. INEOS’ ownership has brought financial stability and security, as LS played in the Swiss Challenge League in the 2022/23 season, the second tier of football in the country, before being promoted at the end of the season into the top flight after a second-place finish. Despite the positives of promotion, LS were promoted after a one-season absence from the top division after their relegation in the 2021/22 season, the second in Ratcliffe's five years of ownership.

INEOS' second, and more substantial, entry into football ownership came in the form of French Ligue 1 side OGC Nice, securing the club in a deal worth £88million. Nice are based in the south of France, near Ratcliffe's second home in Monaco, hence his invested interest in the club. His side finished just three points off a Champions League place in Ligue 1 in the 2021/22 season, and reached their first major cup final in 25 years, beating French giants Paris Saint-Germain on their way to the final.

United fans will be happy to see that INEOS has not been afraid to put their hands in their pockets since arriving on the southern coast, signing proven Premier League names such as Ross Barkley, Aaron Ramsey, and Kasper Schmeichel on permanent deals, as well as Nicolas Pepe, Joe Bryan and Mads Bech Sorensen on loan. The only issue that may concern those in Manchester is the unrest in the dugout at the Allianz Riviera, with Ratcliffe having five different managers in charge in just five seasons since taking over at the club. Ironically though, if a particular set of circumstances were to arise, then Ratcliffe's joint ownership of both Nice and United could cause the Red Devils to be banned from the 2024/25 Champions League campaign.

Ratcliffe might not have been involved at Old Trafford had his previous attempt to buy a Premier League club come through, as he put in a late bid to buy Chelsea in April 2022. INEOS' bid for the Blues - the club Ratcliffe has supported as an adult, despite his ties to United as a child, came in at £4.25billion, but was deemed as too little too late by Raine Group, the investment bank that also conducted the sale of the Red Devils.