Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe puts French club OGC Nice up for sale | OneFootball

Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is exploring the sale of Ligue 1 club OGC Nice.

The Athletic reports, “New York-based investment bank Lazard has been tasked with finding a buyer for the Ligue 1 club and is looking for a price of €250m ($283.2m, £213m at current exchange rates).”

Ratcliffe acquired Nice for €100 million in 2019 from its former Chinese-American ownership group, headed by Chien Lee and Paul Conway.

It’s understood that any potential sale of Nice is complicated by the uncertainty surrounding Ligue 1’s broadcast deal.

Currently, French football is without a domestic TV deal for next season, after the DAZN streaming platform recently terminated their four-year agreement just one season in.

The Athletic notes that Ratcliffe’s INEOS firm have invested heavily in Nice, pumping in around €216million ($245m) in shares – a sum that does not include other loans they may have made.

However, Ratcliffe’s tenure at the Allianz Riviera has not always been well-received, with some fans accusing him of treating the club as a secondary priority, especially following his partial investment in United last year.

Last month, Ratcliffe made dismissive comments about Nice, saying, “I don’t particularly enjoy going to watch Nice because there are some good players, but the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited.”

This triggered an angry response from Nice boss Franck Haise who remarked, “The article that the comments appeared in was a lot more complete than that. But he hasn’t seen a Nice match this season. It’s not that serious. We can be annoyed, that’s obvious. But is it really worth staying annoyed for a long time?”

Ratcliffe’s ownership of both Nice and United has sparked numerous conflicts of interest. In July 2024, UEFA informed United that they would be permitted to compete in the Europa League alongside Nice, bringing an end to a long-standing saga.

A month earlier, UEFA blocked the Red Devils from signing Jean-Clair Todibo from Nice. The Frenchman ended up joining West Ham.

Nice successfully avoided facing United during their Europa League campaign before eventually being eliminated from the competition.

On Thursday, French news outlet l’Informé revealed that Ractliffe wants to sell Nice to finance a full takeover of United.

l’Informé added that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is interested in taking over control of Nice.

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