Sir Jim Ratcliffe draws parallels between Manchester United and INEOS’ sailing team after Americas Cup failure

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·3 novembre 2024

Sir Jim Ratcliffe draws parallels between Manchester United and INEOS’ sailing team after Americas Cup failure

It has been a challenging first year for Sir Jim Ratcliffe as part-owner of Manchester United.

The British billionaire bought a 27.7% share in the football club earlier this year and took control of sporting operations.

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It has been a busy week for the football club from sacking Erik ten Hag on Monday to hiring Ruben Amorim on Friday. The new head coach is set to begin work on November 11 and will remain in charge of Sporting Lisbon until then.

Ratcliffe insists United cannot expect to win trophies if their squad is not good enough, even though Ten Hag managed to win two pieces of silverware in his first two seasons at the club.

The Dutchman ended a trophy drought by winning the Carabao Cup in his first season, before going back to Wembley last season as underdogs to beat Man City in the FA Cup final.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe asked to compare football and sailing

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

However, Ratcliffe drew a parallel between football and sailing after watching INEOS Britannia lose against Emirates Team New Zealand in the Americas Cup.

This implies that Ratcliffe is not entirely happy with the United squad. I mean, how could he be, given how poor results have been this season? It’s even led to him making a decision he didn’t want to make by dismissing Ten Hag just months after rewarding him an extension.

When asked if he could take anything from sailing into his work with United, Ratcliffe responded (via The Express): “No… I think there’s one little crossover, which is that you cannot win the Americas Cup if you arrive at the Americas Cup with a boat that ‘could’ win the Americas Cup.

“Same in Formula One. Max Verstappen in a Williams, he’s not going to win the Formula One [World Drivers’] Championship. With football it’s the same with the squad in a way. That’s the parallel for me – you can’t win anything in football if your squad isn’t good enough to win something.

“The quality of the squad is a bit like the speed of the boat. That’s the only parallel.”