English Billionaire Confirms Long-Standing Rumors About Manchester United Purchase

Manchester United has been enjoying a season of success thus far with Dutch manager Erik ten Hag at the wheel, though the team could be having a new owner very soon.

English billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is officially throwing his hat into a bid for owning Manchester United and effectively taking it away from the Glazer family as reported by Sky Sports.

Ratcliffe, who is also the founder and chairman of British chemicals company Ineos, is no stranger to the sports world as he owns many teams across different disciplines such as FC Lausanne-Sport in the Swiss Super League, the Team Sky cycling franchise (now known as Ineos Grenadiers)/

He is also the current principal partner of Mercedes AMG F1 since February 2020.

He, under the Ineos group, also owns French Ligue 1 side OGC Nice after buying the team for £88.77 million ($109 million) in 2019.

The Manchester, England-born businessman deciding to target his boyhood club is of little surprise to anyone who has followed his recent ventures as he was also involved in a bid for English Premier League club Chelsea.

Following then-owner Roman Abramovich's sale of the club due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ratcliffe moved to acquire Chelsea with a £4.25 billion ($5.22 billion) bid in April 2022, but it was rejected and eventually sold to US-based businessman Todd Boehly for the same amount.

"We have formally put ourselves into the process," an Ineos spokesperson told Sky Sports about their involvement in a possible buyout of Manchester United.

In November 2022, former Goldman Sachs boss Lord Jim O'Neill told the Manchester Evening News that the Glazer family may have been overvaluing the amount investors are willing to put up for a Manchester United sale and how the only way they can sell it is if they can lower their demands.

Ratcliffe had already expressed his interest in buying Manchester United back in August 2022 and now appears to be on the cusp of doing so sometime this year.

Fan opinion on social media about Ratcliffe's potential takeover of the Red Devils has been split for the most part. Their belief is that if the Ineos group, not Ratcliffe himself, were to own the team, there could be some changes in management that could lead to a setback – with most noting OGC Nice and Mercedes AMG F1's recent runs.

On the other side of the fence, the fact that Ineos is sitting on a lot of money under them could mean big-time transfer acquisitions could be happening on the horizon and eventually propel them back to yearly title contention in the Premier League.

Because of Ratcliffe's childhood ties to Manchester United and what Ineos could bring to the team, cautious optimism is slowly creeping into a fanbase that just saw their guys defeat Manchester City in a dramatic 2-1 victory this past weekend.