Advertisement
Supported by
The $1 billion deal leaves the team’s unpopular owners, the Glazer family, at the helm of the club, but delegates day-to-day jobs to their new partner.
By Tariq Panja
After a year of rumours, offers and news, Manchester United’s owners announced on Sunday that they had sold a minority stake in the team, English football’s most successful club, to British petrochemical billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.
The sale of the 25-cent stake in United, the former English and European champions, was announced through representatives of United and INEOS, the company of Mr. United, Ratcliffe, and announced through the club on social media.
In addition to acquiring a significant ownership stake, Mr. Ratcliffe also agreed to provide another $300 million “intended to enable future investment into Old Trafford,” the club’s iconic stadium. As part of the deal, INEOS was given responsibility for managing the team’s soccer operations, granting it effective control over “all aspects” of the United men’s and women’s teams and also the club’s youth academy.
The deal concluded a chaotic process that many of the team’s enthusiasts had hoped would end in something far more significant: the departure from the club of the team’s current owners, the Florida-based Glazer family, who had controlled United since its acquisition through debt financing. Purchase in 2005.
Instead, the Glazers will remain the team’s majority shareholders and earn a sum that values Manchester United at around $6. 3 billion, more than five times the amount the Glazers paid to buy it just two decades ago. And by assigning tasks to the INEOS Sports Group – which already has interests in football, motorsport, cycling and rugby – with the management of football, the Glazer family can protect itself from the toughest complaints from fans.
“Through INEOS Sport, Manchester United will have access to seasoned high-performance professionals, experienced in creating and leading elite teams from both inside and outside the game,” the United co-chairmen and brothers Joel and Avram Glazer said.
Ratcliffe, through INEOS, agreed to pay $33 percent for his 25 percent stake, a value that represents a premium of nearly 70 percent over the team’s current percentages on the New York Stock Exchange.
“As a local boy and a long-time supporter of the club, I am very pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with Manchester United’s board of directors delegating to us the responsibility of managing the club’s football operations,” said United. United are for sale. ” Although the club’s good publicity good fortune has meant that there is always a budget available to win trophies at the highest level, in recent times this prospect has not been fully exploited. “
The sale procedure began more than a year ago, sparked by a flippant comment from Elon Musk on social media that he was buying the club. Musk later said his offer was a joke, but the Glazers were serious and wanted to know more.
United has hired U. S. mergers and acquisitions specialist Raine Group to handle a potential sale after the company secured a record price of around $3 billion for another English club, Chelsea. When the Glazers made it clear they were open to bidding, bidders temporarily went under cover, including not only Mr Ratcliffe, but also a US investment fund and a Qatari businessman with ties to some of the Gulf country’s most influential figures. Their offers seemed to increase with each new media report. .
The whole process unfolded against a backdrop of months of conflicting headlines, fan protests and fluctuations in the club’s percentage value, and all this while the once-top team in the Premier League table struggled to maintain consistency and won the pitch.
“This has been a process that has put the most productive interests of the Glazer family ahead of the interests of the club,” said Duncan Drasdo, a United supporter and chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, an organisation that has protested against the club’s ownership since the Glazers’ arrival at Old Trafford.
The nature of the initial takeover saw Glazer family patriarch Malcolm burned in effigy and prompted the Premier League to work out a deal so that such a deal would not be repeated. The Glazer family borrowed the lion’s share of their £805 million (about £1 billion today) purchase of United on the last debt-free balance sheet. Over the next two decades, the club paid more than £1 billion in interest and other prices due to the acquisition of Glazer, while its debt also exceeded £1 billion.
The decision to consider even a partial sale was celebrated by the team’s enormous fan base when it was announced in November 2022. By then United had gone almost a decade without a Premier League title, a championship it last celebrated in 2013, and been usurped as English soccer’s dominant club by its cross town rival Manchester City, thanks to the backing of a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates.
A similar option emerged for United when the son of a Qatari businessman, former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, announced his goal of buying the team. The offer has been widely promoted on social media through fans, influencers and even former players, adding former captain Rio Ferdinand, who created a frenzy and a surge in United’s percentage value in June when he announced a sale to the Qatari organisation was “imminent”.
This turned out to be a false dawn. And he wasn’t the only one. Other British media headlines, which approached the takeover in a manner more typical of high-profile player swaps in the transfer market, led to ups and downs in United’s hopes and percentage price.
The conclusion of the sale process will not produce the end result that many enthusiasts had hoped to see: the sale of the team through the Glazers. Ratcliffe will now receive just 25 per cent of the club’s voting rights through a combination of the Glazers. As part of the deal, the Glazers will resign from the club’s sporting activities on a daily basis, but retain United’s business relationships and continue to hold the majority of seats on the board of directors.
Mr. Ratcliffe seemed pleased with the deal he had made — “We are here for the long term,” he said of his new management team — but the reaction of fans might not be as universally positive.
“I think the challenge is that it leaves enthusiasts divided,” Drasdo said. This leaves a feeling of resentment and negativity that doesn’t help. A blank break would have been preferable.
Fans will be hoping the new era will lead to a return to United’s winning tactics and a reversal of the failed succession plans that followed the retirement of legendary manager Alex Ferguson after leading the team to the last of its 20 league championships in 2013. Since then, new coaches have come and gone and sums of money have been spent on new additions. But with no discernible strategy, the club now finds itself with a bloated and underperforming squad, and clinging to eighth place in the 20-team Premier League.
“It’s greater than the prestige quo,” said Andy Green, a board member of MUST and chief investment officer of Rockpool, a personal equity firm. “Because they’ve proven to be pretty much for sure as football club owners. “
A previous edition of this article incorrectly referred to the number of league championships won by Manchester United. It’s 8 p. m. , 7 p. m.
How we handle corrections
Tariq Panja covers some of the darkest corners of the sports industry. He is also the co-author of “Football’s Secret Trade,” a disclosure about the multi-billion dollar football player trading industry. Learn more about Tariq Panja
Advertising