Manchester United have been owned by the Glazer family since 2005 and the Americans’ poor ownership has reached boiling point, with supporters arranging protests against them at every opportunity.
The Glazers’ relationship with United supporters was already fractured in 2021 but when the disgraced Super League experiment collapsed, the movement to remove the Old Trafford owners have gained more momentum than ever.
Earlier this year, following his failed takeover attempt at Chelsea, Sir Jim Ratcliffe confirmed that he was interested in buying Manchester United from the Glazer family.
There is increasing pressure on the Glazer family to part ways with the club they have owned for 17 years but they are, so far, not budging and that’s something Ratcliffe has again reiterated.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday evening, Ratcliffe explained that despite being a lifelong United supporter, there is little he can do in this situation due to Joel and Avram Glazers’ resistance.
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“I’m a life-long Manchester United fan,” Ratcliffe told the publication, according to CBS journalist Ben Jacobs. “But Man United is owned by the Glazer family.
“I’ve met Joel and Avram and they are the nicest people and they don’t want to sell it. We can’t sit around hoping one day Man United will become available.”
United’s current owners have allowed the biggest club in the world to succumb to mediocrity over the last 10 years and as things stand, as Ratcliffe points out, that ownership is not about to change anytime soon.
It is, however, clear that Ratcliffe is interested in acquiring a Premier League club after he declared interest in both Chelsea and United.
Should he succeed in that ambition and acquire a Premier League club that is not United, he will be prohibited from owning the Reds as one person or business cannot own two clubs in the same division.