On December 24, 2023, Ineos won a hell of a battle against Qatar. In competition with Sheikh Jassim, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his teams completed the purchase of 25% of Manchester United’s shares for an amount of 1.5 billion euros. “Manchester United today announced that it has entered into an agreement under which INEOS Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe will acquire 25% of the Class B shares of Manchester United and up to 25% of the Class A shares of Manchester United, and will provide an additional $300 million to enable future investment at Old Trafford. As part of the transaction, INEOS accepted the board’s request to be delegated responsibility for the management of the club’s football operations. This will include all aspects of men’s and women’s football operations and academies, as well as two seats on the board of directors of Manchester United PLC and the board of directors of Manchester United Football Club.could we read on the official press release.
An important change for the residents of Old Trafford. Although the Glazer family is still present, Ineos, which is not a majority shareholder, wanted to make major changes within the club, particularly with regard to sports policy and economic and commercial areas. But last June, six months after his arrival, the British businessman gave an alarming overview of the situation during an interview with Bloomberg. “There is room for improvement everywhere we look here and we will improve everything (…) The coach (Erik ten Hag at the time, editor’s note) is not the central problem at Manchester United. It’s a sports club. It has to be competitive, it has to be a certain degree of intensity, but with a positive side because you are dealing with players who are relatively young. There hasn’t been this type of environment historically.”
Ratcliffe cut to the chase
He added: “Manchester United don’t have players valued at €100m or more,” Ratcliffe noted, adding that a superstar “won’t solve the problem at Manchester United. We want to be where Real Madrid are today, but it will take time. We are a little handicapped. It will take two or three summer windows to get to a better place. I’m not sure we will solve all the problems in the first transfer window. Net spending since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill is £1.1 billion. Real Madrid are worth £200m and today they have 6 or 7 players valued at over £100m. United don’t have one. And they made the new Bernabeu…” Ambitious, the billionaire wanted to draw inspiration from the best. But he also quickly cut to the chase.
Indeed, Ratcliffe and his teams have decided to do a major clean-up within the club, which has lost a lot of money over the last five years. There BBC Sport spoke of an amount of €442 million. To remedy this, the new management wants to save money. During the summer, it was announced that 250 MU employees were laid off. Recently, we learned that the Red Devils have decided to part ways at the end of the season with Sir Alex Ferguson, who was the club’s ambassador and responsible for promoting the image of the MU throughout the world. A mission that he had carried out for eleven years and for which he was graciously paid €2.58 million per year. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has therefore decided to turn off the tap to the Scottish legend, who no longer has privileges (he will no longer be able to access the Mancunian locker rooms in particular, editor’s note). But he is not the only one to pay the price for Ineos’ strict policy. Players’ families and employees have lost many privileges.
Man Utd are tightening their belts
The Sun recently revealed that they had to pay for their transport to attend the FA Cup final against Manchester City last May. Lunches, tickets and even post-match parties financed by the club have been eliminated. Regarding club employees, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has put an end to teleworking and requires them to come to the offices. The only problem is that there aren’t enough places to accommodate everyone. Makeshift offices have therefore been set up in certain areas of the stadium and are removed on match days. The only times employees can work from home. THE Daily Mail adds that the Christmas bonus of more than €120 awarded each year has been replaced by a voucher worth €48.5 at Marc & Spencer. “That’s £40 (€48.5) more than I expected”an employee anonymously confided to the Telegraph. In addition, the British media adds that the traditional Christmas party, which could bring together up to 1,100 employees, has been canceled. Management indicated that it would have been in bad taste to maintain it after having sacked 250 people this year.
On the side of the pennant team, Ratcliffe also wants to cut to the chase. After parting ways with Ten Hag, he opened the door to many players, including Marcus Rashford whose salary was considered too high. Sky Germany adds that more than half of the team’s players are for sale this winter or next summer. Apart from Diallo, Mainoo, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Yoro, Onana and 2-3 other players, the leaders will not retain anyone. The same goes for employees in the sports sector. They also recently thanked sporting director Dan Ashworth just five months after his arrival. The supporters, too, are victims of the arrival of Ineos. THE Daily Mail specifies that tickets have been increased for children and retirees, who now pay €80. The English publication adds on this subject: “Supporters have already demonstrated in front of Old Trafford to demand that we stop exploiting them.” In less than a year, the new shareholder of Manchester United has already tired a lot of people. Especially since many fans and employees, who favored Sheikh Jassim’s Qatari project, have regrets regarding the takeover of the club.
Many were for Qatar’s XXL project
And they’re still going to have more. This Thursday, the Daily Mail asked one of the advisers to the Qatar-led project. The latter mentioned what Qatar would have put in place at MU. “A stadium for a football club paid for by a football club and no one else. And as for the staff that Ratcliffe is laying off, we would have hired them”he revealed before specifying that Populous, who designed numerous stadiums during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, had already developed plans for the future Manchester United venue. In addition, the English media returned to the “ruby project” of Sheikh Jassim, who wanted to revolutionize MU in three days. The first day, he had to buy the club. The second, he intended to settle all the debts. Finally, on the third day, he had promised to finance an ultra-modern stadium 90,000 to 100,000 places Despite his ideas and his offer of 5.45 billion euros, he did not convince the Glazers Enough to give regret to his supporters and fans. more and more disappointed.
“It took just 11 months for some Manchester United fans to turn against minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. And the skeptics among the Old Trafford faithful will no doubt be even more frustrated when they discover what might have happened under the Qatari administration, which planned to revolutionize the club in just three days.writing The Sun. Despite the failure of its case, Qatar is still closely following what is happening at Manchester United, where Ineos is criticized from all sides. “Sheikh Jassim is still a rich man. He is still a United fan. He’s not going to rush out and try to buy another Premier League club. If the opportunity to buy the whole of Manchester United arises again in the future, it’s hard to imagine there not being a lot of interest. The projects are still there”. The message got through…
