Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has ruled himself out of buying Manchester United and Liverpool, according to The Telegraph.
He would rather spend his time and money improving the fortunes of his INEOS-owned Ligue 1 outfit OGC Nice. Ratcliffe believes that there is more value in France than in England.
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has put Liverpool up for sale. They are inviting offers from parties interested in buying the club. The Glazers have also been under pressure to sell Manchester United. They are willing to share their stake in United.
Ratcliffe has now iterated that he will not move to buy either Premier League club.
“Our position has developed since the summer, and we are now focusing our efforts in Nice and raising our ambitions for the club to make them into a top tier club in France to compete with PSG,” said a spokesman for the petrochemicals giant INEOS.
“This would represent much better value for our investment than buying one of the top-tier Premier League clubs.”
The news of his disinterest is surprising because he tried to buy Chelsea when the club was up for sale last year. He came in with a last-minute £4.2 billion bid to buy the London club after the sanctions against Roman Abramovich.
However, his bid fell back as the Todd Boehly-led Clearlake Consortium took over the club.
Ratcliffe then signalled strong interest in buying his boyhood club Man United.
“If the club is for sale, Jim is definitely a potential buyer,” a spokesperson told The Times in August. “If something like this was possible, we would be interested in talking with a view to long-term ownership.”
Ratcliffe is one of the few Englishmen with the financial muscle to buy Liverpool or United.
His firm has invested in Formula 1 and cycling. Apart from Nice, they also own a Swiss club, Lausanne. However, he will not be adding United and Liverpool to his portfolio.
