INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe Manchester United
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In late 2023, Sir Jim Ratcliffe had his bid for a 27.7% stake of Manchester United accepted, giving him control of the operations at Old Trafford.
However, this wasn’t the INEOS owner’s first attempt to buy a Premier League club.
Back in 2022, only a year before Ratcliffe’s bid for United, the British entrepreneur made a major attempt to hijack the sale of Chelsea which ultimately went to Todd Boehly.
The Daily Mail has reported that a new book entitled “Sanctioned: The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC” has revealed details about the INEOS owner’s last minute attempt to disrupt the sale of The Blues.
Chelsea’s sale was being handled by Raine, a US bank, who had already cut down an initial 280 expressions of interest to a mere three potential investors.
Of the three, the Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium went on to be successful, however that wasn’t before Ratcliffe tried to wade into the mix ate on.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck reportedly had a call from Ratcliffe the morning after a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford in April 2022, requesting an urgent meeting be set up.
It’s reported that during this meeting, Ratcliffe kept tapping his check, claiming that in his jacket pocket, the INEOS owner had an offer for the club written on a piece of paper.
This was a huge contrast in comparison to the 140-page documents that other consortiums had submitted, with Buck unable to obtain the paper from Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe was confident that his bid was the only made up entirely of British money, and in a meeting with Raine that same morning made a formal bid of £4.25 billion, matching that of the shortlisted trio.
The book explain: “Buck, (Marina) Granovskaia and Raine were left with the distinct impression that Ratcliffe was convinced his status as the sole bid composed entirely of British money and personnel set him apart from all competition, by virtue of the Government’s oversight of the sale and required sign-off.”
Ratcliffe doubled down on his claim, with INEOS releasing a simple statement saying: “This is a British bid, for a British club.”
However, the actions of Ratcliffe, bypassing the system, although angering the other bidders, had no impact on the process, with Chelsea selecting Boehly and Clearlake as the awarded bid.
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