Sir Jim Ratcliffe officially in the running to buy Manchester United
Jim Ratcliffe © OGC Nice
The Monaco resident and CEO of the Ineos group has submitted an offer to buy the English club.
An ardent Manchester United supporter since his childhood, Sir Jim Ratcliffe couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make his beloved club his own.
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As announced several weeks ago, the current owner of OGC Nice has put in an offer for the shares belonging to the Glazer family, who have a controlling stake in the Red Devils.
“Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have submitted a bid for majority ownership of Manchester United Football Club,” the chemical giant’s statement said.
A showdown between Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar?
“We would see our role as the long-term custodians of Manchester United on behalf of the fans and the wider community.
We are ambitious and highly competitive and would want to invest in Manchester United to make them the number one club in the world once again” and “a beacon for a modern, progressive, fan-centred approach to ownership.”
With a personal fortune recently estimated at over €14 billion by Forbes, Sir Jim Ratcliffe will face competition from Qatar in the shape of Jassim Bin Hamad J.J. Al Thani, who is also bidding to buy the club.
The Qatari offer is said to be around 4.5 billion euros, as is the British bid. Rumoured interest from Saudi Arabia, which already owns Newcastle in the Premier League, and from Elon Musk, the head of Twitter, Space X and Tesla, did not materialise.