Manchester United takeover: Sir Jim Ratcliffe told by the Glazers the Premier League club is 'not for sale'

Britain's richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, says the Glazer family has told him Manchester United is not for sale. Ratcliffe, whose Ineos group owns Nice in France and Swiss club Lausanne, attempted to buy Chelsea in May, but the London club was bought by a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly instead. Ad Lancashire-born Ratcliffe revealed on Tuesday he was interested in acquiring United in August, but in a meeting with brothers Joel and Avram Glazer, he was told the club was not for sale.

TransfersManchester United and Chelsea face Toney battle — Paper Round21/08/2022 AT 05:50 Ratcliffe told a Financial Times live conference: «I’m a lifelong Manchester United fan. And I was there in that most remarkable match in 1999 in Barcelona, which is deeply etched in my mind. »Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family.

I met Joel and Avram, and they are the nicest people. They are gentlemen. And they don’t want to sell.

«And it’s owned by the six children of the father, and they don’t want to sell. »If it had been for sale in the summer, yes, we would probably have had a go following on from the Chelsea thing. But we can’t sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available.” Alongside his football clubs, Ratcliffe also owns the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, a third of the Mercedes F1 team, and Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team.

When asked if he would invest more in football, he said: «The most popular sport in the world is football and it is the sport closest to us, so we should have an asset.” However, Ratcliffe suggested his focus may not be on the Premier League. He said: “Well not a Premier League, a premier club. I think Nice has got a very interesting history.