Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has announced his interest in exploring a takeover of Premier League club Manchester United. This comes after the Glazer family, Man Utd’s current majority owners, revealed in November that they are exploring new strategies including outside investment or a sale of their stake in the club.
“I can confirm that we have formally put ourselves into the process,” a spokesperson for Ratcliffe confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday. With formal bids for the club not expected until February, Ratcliffe is the first to announce his intention to explore a team takeover.
A boyhood Manchester United fan, Ratcliffe previously explored the purchase of the team’s Premier League rivals Chelsea last year, however, the Blues were ultimately bought by a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly.
Ratcliffe expressed his disappointment in the decline that Man Utd has undergone in recent years. “Manchester United was one of those top three clubs with Barcelona and Real Madrid,” Ratcliffe explained in a newspaper interview in October.
“A few more have joined that club with Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Liverpool are a little bit closer. But Manchester United are not playing in that league of those other teams at the moment and haven’t done for quite some years since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down [in 2013].
