Manchester United ended the year on a minority note

British entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe, head of the petrochemical group INEOS, has completed a deal to acquire a 25% stake in one of the most popular English football clubs, Manchester United. Mr. Ratcliffe will pay about £1.03 billion for a minority stake. He has pledged to invest another £236 million in the renovation of the Old Trafford stadium and the club’s training ground. At the same time, despite the fact that control of Manchester United will remain with the Glazer family, all football operations, including transfer policy and personnel issues, including the appointment of a head coach, will be taken over by Jim Ratcliffe. The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) organization has already expressed doubts about the viability of such a scheme. Experts also note that the funds allocated by Mr. Ratcliffe for the maintenance of Old Trafford will only be enough to patch up the holes. Literally, the roof of the stadium has been leaking for a long time.

One of the richest entrepreneurs in Great Britain, the head of the petrochemical concern INEOS, Jim Ratcliffe, has agreed on a deal to acquire a minority stake in Manchester United. Its final completion will require approval from regulators, in particular the English Premier League, but this is nothing more than a formality.

The terms of the agreement are reported BBC, provide that Jim Ratcliffe will acquire 25% of the B shares and up to 25% of the A shares of Manchester United from the Glazer family for £1.03 billion. Class A shares give one vote each, class B shares ten. Thanks to this imbalance, the Glaser family, although they owned only 69% of the club’s securities (mostly class B shares), had almost all the votes. Once the deal is completed, Americans will also retain a majority vote.

But at the same time, the parties agreed that Jim Ratcliffe (his representatives will receive two seats on the club’s board of directors) will receive control over the football operations themselves, that is, direct management, including transfer policy, appointment of a head coach, etc.

The agreement also stipulates that the buyer will allocate £236 million to renovate the Old Trafford stadium and the Manchester team’s training ground. The parties did not mention that in the future Jim Ratcliffe intends to increase his share to a controlling stake. According to Sky Sports, there really is no such clause in the contract. But there is a provision that says that if the Glazers decide to sell more shares in the club in the future, they must first offer them to Jim Ratcliffe and only if he refuses to look for other buyers.

Let us note that the saga with the sale of Manchester United lasted 13 months and, apparently, ended with half-hearted results. Manchester fans, who had long been demanding that the Glazers sell the club completely, at some point perked up. After all, one of the sons of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Jassim ibn Hamad Al Thani, offered very interesting terms of the deal. He was ready to purchase 100% of the club’s shares. In total, Sheikh Jassim allocated £5 billion. Of this, about £1 billion was planned to be used to cover the club’s debts, the rest would go to the Glazers. Separately, the sheikh was ready to guarantee investments in the development of the club, in particular in the reconstruction of Old Trafford and the team’s training base, another £1.4 billion. And the £236 million that Jim Ratcliffe allocates for the arena, according to Jim Ratcliffe Daily Mail, just enough to patch the holes. Including in the literal sense – the roof of the stadium has been leaking for a long time. Moreover, the lion’s share of the allocated funds, at least £150 million, will go towards renovating the training ground, not the arena.

Be that as it may, the Glazers (the club was led by Avram and Joel Glazer, the sons of Malcolm Glazer, who bought Manchester United in 2005 for £790 million, mainly through borrowed funds) preferred the option of selling a minority stake. Back in October, when it became known that the Glazers had decided to make a deal with Jim Ratcliffe, one of the specialists preparing it told Sky Sports that the problem was that the Americans overvalued their asset and wanted at least £5 billion for it just for myself. “Sheikh Jassim paid with real money, he paid off all debts, he was ready to invest in reconstruction and give money to buy new players. But this was not enough for the Glazers,” said the source. “If they really wanted to just sell a minority stake, they could have easily done it privately back in November last year. So what now? What will change with Ratcliffe’s arrival?

The question of what will change with the arrival of Jim Ratcliffe is indeed a difficult one. Concerns in this regard are outlined in a statement from the Manchester United Supporters` Trust. It notes that fans greeted news of the deal with mixed feelings, that they would like to see Jim Ratcliffe receive a larger stake, noting that the continued presence of the Glazers poses problems, and also expressed doubts that the scheme in which the organization gives away control over the main business in the hands of a minority shareholder will turn out to be working. “The club’s owners and management must explain how the new structure will work, where the investment will be directed and what it will bring to the team,” MUST said in a statement.

However, Jim Ratcliffe himself is optimistic about the future, declaring an ambitious goal – “to return Manchester United to where it belongs – to the top of English, European and world football.” Mr. Ratcliffe, indeed, has quite successful experience in managing a football club. INEOS belongs to FC Nice, which is currently second in the French Championship (after 17 rounds, Nice is 5 points behind PSG) and has a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League. The same cannot be said about Manchester United. The team, which has not won the English Championship since 2013, is only in eighth place in the current championship.

Alexander Petrov