Liverpool have been put up for sale as Fenway Sports Group look for fresh investment, however, British billionaire and Manchester United fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe has rubbished claims he has an interest in owning the club.
There had been speculation over whether Ratcliffe would buy Manchester United, but he also poured cold water over those claims by stating the Glazers are not interested in selling the club, despite his interest.
Speaking last month, Ratcliffe said (via Daily Mail): “Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family, whom I have met. They don’t want to sell it.
“If it had been for sale in the summer then, yes, we would have probably had a go following on from the Chelsea thing, but we can’t sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available. We have an exciting sporting franchise [including OGC Nice].”
After failing to buy Chelsea this summer, it sounds like Ratcliffe is ready to focus on OGC Nice – a Ligue 1 club purchased by Ineos investment team back in 2019. At least he won’t be using his wealth to help Liverpool in the future.
A spokesperson for Ineos said, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News: “Our position has developed, and we are now focusing efforts in Nice and raising ambitions for the club to make them into a top-tier club in France to compete with PSG. This would represent much better value to our investment than buying one of the top-tier Premier League clubs.”
A lot of the premature excitement that surrounded Ratcliffe and Manchester United has quenched in recent times. I think it will take someone — or a group — with even more money than Ratcliffe to buy the club and give Old Trafford the redevelopment it needs.
