Manchester United takeover: Sir Jim Ratcliffe enters the race to buy club with £9.8 bn net worth

Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has confirmed his interest in buying Manchester United from the Glazers. The club was out up for sale by the family a few months ago, and Ratcliffe has emerged as one of the concrete candidates to become the new owner of the team. 

Ratcliffe is valued at £9.8 billion, and is looking at a strategic alternative – which could be outside investment or a sale altogether. 

Jim Ratcliffe in the race to take over Manchester United 

“Manchester United was one of those top three clubs with Barcelona and Real Madrid,” Jim Ratcliffe told the Financial Times in October.

“A few more have joined that club with Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Liverpool are a little bit closer.

“But Manchester United are not playing in that league of those other teams at the moment and haven’t done for quite some years since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down [in 2013].

“So they’re not firing on all cylinders, that’s my point on performance.”

Formal bids are not expected until February, with bidders from Saudi Arabia, Asia as well as United States also in the running. Right now, bidders are doing their due diligence as the first steps to enter the race. 

Ratcliffe was one of the interested parties in buying Chelsea from Roman Abramovich, despite growing up as a Manchester United fan. And one of his ambitions is to get silverware for the club, which hasn’t been achieved since 2017. And the Premier League title has evaded them since 2013, which is a decade ago. 

Fans have been protesting against the ownership of the Glazers for months on end, and they are now set to end their 18-year ownership of Manchester United soon. Now, it remains to be seen who wins the bidding war to take over from them.