Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Knighted by the Queen in 2018. Britain’s richest man. And now, potentially, the next owner of Manchester United. But in this murky world of billionaires and football clubs, what do we actually know about Ratcliffe?
Newcastle United have recently controversially been bought by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Manchester City is owned by Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the billionaire deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. Qatar are reportedly interested in purchasing Liverpool Football Club.
All three countries have serious human rights issues, but still the Premier League is willing to take their money. So when a local Manchester lad, born in Failsworth northeast of the city, wants to takeover the club he has supported his whole life, on the surface at least, it feels like a refreshing feel-good story.
READ MORE:
- Opta predicts where Man Utd will finish
- Why Zaha should stay at Crystal Palace
- Premier League odds with Betfred*
United fans love to mock their noisy neighbours for their ownership, but who is the man that has formally lodged a bid to buy their club? Well, first of all, he is absolutely loaded. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of £17.5 billion, making him the 112th-richest person in the world.
That’s rich enough for him to purchase any of the 72 world’s poorest countries. Or in other words he’s got just under 40% of the globe to choose from if he felt like splurging. He owns INEOS, the fourth-largest chemical company in the world. The BBC recently reported that the company generates sales of around 50 billion pounds ($62 billion) and employs more than 26,000 people.
It’s big business, and INEOS have also dipped their toes into the world of sport. They took over from Sky to sponsor the British cycling team, own INEOS Grenadiers in the same sport and are one-third shareholders of the Mercedes Formula One team.
In football, INEOS already owns French Ligue 1 outfit Nice and Swiss side FC Lausanne-Sport, so the addition of Manchester United would see them begin to build a similar portfolio to that of the City Group.
The sporting pedigree and the money is certainly there, but what about Ratcliffe himself? Well, he’s caused quite the stir in the United Kingdom recently. He was a huge supporter of Brexit in the run up to the 2016 referendum and along with Sir James Dyson, convinced the public that Britain would be prosperous outside the EU.
His promise to build his new Grenadier 4x4 car in Wales back in 2018 was testament to his dedication to British business - until he changed his mind. Now being built in a plant in France, the decision has cost thousands of jobs and was a real blow for the local area.
Chris Elmore, the Labour Member of Parliament for Ogmore stated: "That Brexit is clearly a major factor at play is a bitter pill to swallow. Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was a vocal Brexiteer, loudly proclaiming the benefits of leaving the EU. Today, we can see his claims are as hollow as his promises."
If his hypocritical approach to Brexit wasn’t enough to rile you up, he then quit Britain altogether in 2020 to move to tax-free Monaco. According to the Sunday Times tax list, before he left for Monaco, Ratcliffe was the UK’s third-highest individual taxpayer, paying £110m to the exchequer in 2017-18. It has been estimated that the move will save him £4bn in tax payments.
“We are Brits, aren’t we? It’s where we started and it’s where our hearts lie,” Ratcliffe said back in late 2016, when INEOS moved back to London from Switzerland. Four years later, he was packing his bags, willing to declare his love for Great Britain, but not actually contribute in taxes to the country so dear to his heart.
It has even been reported that he would not have been knighted, had the panel known he was planning to relocate to Monaco. Perhaps no billionaire is ever going to be perfect. It’s an unthinkable, astronomical amount of money to have and buying a football club seems like a good way to waste some of it.
But Ratcliffe shouldn’t be heralded by Manchester United as a patriotic local lad that has done well for himself.
*18+ | Be Gamble Aware
