Manchester United Muslim Supporters Demand Ownership Exit Following Ratcliffe Comments
Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has demanded that co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family leave the club, after Ratcliffe’s latest comments on UK immigration levels. The group’s statement, issued this week, follows Ratcliffe telling the BBC that the country is “on the slide”. It marks one of the strongest public interventions yet from a United fan body against the club’s ownership.
“After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club,” the group said. It closed its statement with a direct ultimatum: “Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”
The group also used its statement to defend the club’s diverse fanbase and playing staff.
“Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them,” it said. “That diversity isn’t a weakness of Manchester United. It is part of Manchester United.”
BBC Interview Triggered Fan Statement and Official Backlash
Ratcliffe’s remarks came during an interview with the BBC, in which he argued the UK was in decline because of a combination of high taxes and high immigration. It is not the first time he has spoken in these terms. Ratcliffe previously apologised after saying the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”, a comment that drew widespread criticism at the time.
The supporters’ club referenced that earlier controversy directly in its statement. “We condemned those comments then,” it said, adding that Ratcliffe “subsequently apologised for his choice of language. We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.”
“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either,” it said, calling the comments “deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable”.
According to a source familiar with the Glazer family cited by BBC Sport, the family were “horrified” by Ratcliffe’s initial remarks and felt they showed “disregard for their ownership”. That reaction has not been officially confirmed by the Glazer family or by INEOS.
Managerial Changes and Structural Overhaul Contextualise Fan Frustration
Ratcliffe acquired a 27.7% stake in Manchester United in 2024, taking control of football operations under the ongoing Ratcliffe plan. Since then, his tenure has been defined by cost cutting and structural change as much as by football decisions.
He has overseen 450 redundancies across the club, alongside a wider restructuring of senior management. Two permanent managers have also been sacked during his time in charge, a turnover that has fuelled criticism from supporters who feel the promised turnaround has not materialised.
Ratcliffe’s political history adds further context to the fan reaction. He campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 EU referendum on immigration and sovereignty grounds, and he has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020. Supporters have pointed to that background when questioning the credibility of his recent comments on UK taxation and national decline.
Ownership Response Awaited as Premier League Campaign Continues
The statement lands at a difficult moment on the pitch. Manchester United sit 13th in the Premier League with four points from four games, and they were eliminated from the Carabao Cup by Brighton. The results have added weight to supporters’ complaints about direction under the current ownership.
Neither Ratcliffe nor the Glazer family had issued a public response to the supporters’ club statement at the time of writing. The club’s off-field strategy, including Ratcliffe’s role in transfer business, has continued regardless of the growing fan pressure.
United face a Premier League fixture list that offers little room to ease the tension between boardroom and terraces. Further reaction from the club’s ownership, or lack of it, will be closely watched by supporters as the season progresses. Full details on the fan group’s statement can be found in the BBC Sport report on fan group statement.
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