Who is Jim Ratcliffe - the British billionaire who acquired 25 per cent stake in Manchester United

Jim Ratcliffe, a British billionaire, acquired 25 per cent stake in Premier League outfit Manchester United, for £1.2 billion, after much speculation. Buying a minority stake in United gives Ratcliffe freedom to control the footballing operations, who have struggled for consistency this season under manager Erik ten Hag, amid reported off-field controversies. Manchester United have been knocked out of Europe after finishing bottom of the group in the UEFA Champions League. They were bundled out of the League Cup by Newcastle. In the Premier League, they are in eighth place with just 28 points. Overall United have lost 13 games this season - the most defeats for them before Christmas since the 1930-31 season. So who is Jim Ratcliffe? Jim Ratcliffe is a well-known businessman in the United Kingdom. Forbes estimates that Ratcliffe’s net worth is $23 billion, thus making him one of Britain’s richest people.  Ratcliffe is a fan of Manchester United, although he had made an unsuccessful bid to buy Chelsea last year. Ever since, Ratcliffe had been long linked to buy Manchester United, with Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani also being initially interested until he pulled out of race recently. Ratcliffe is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the INEOS chemicals group, a company he founded in 1998. Ratcliffe is no newbie when it comes to owning sports teams. In 2017, INEOS acquired Swiss football club FC Lausanne-Sport. The team participates in the Swiss Super League, the top tier of Switzerland’s club football system. INEOS also owns French Ligue 1 club OGC Nice, who are currently second in the standings of the France’s top division. At NICE, Ratcliffe has taken a few bold decisions, including the sacking of Patrick Viera as manager and replacing him with Christophe Galtier, who had just won the Ligue 1 title with Lille in 2019. Ratcliffe has been responsible for bringing in youth to the outfit at NICE. Kasper Dolberg, Khephren Thuram and Amine Gouiri have been few such acquisitions under the British businessman. In 2019, Ratcliffe’s company acquired cycling team, Team SKY and the team was renamed to Team INEOS, and in 2020, INEOS acquired a one-third stake in Mercedes Formula One team. INEOS also backed Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge’s successful effort to become the first man to run a marathon in under two hours in Vienna in 2019. Kipchoge was aided by a group of pacemakers, working in shifts, to form a V-shaped aerodynamic drag position using expertise that INEOS gained from cycling’s peloton. However, the feat was not recognised by athletics chiefs as a world record due to the conditions used to aid the Kenyan. INEOS also has its presence felt in sailing. INEOS Britannia, led by four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, will challenge for the 2024 America’s Cup in Barcelona after falling short in their aim of becoming the first-ever British winners in 2021. “As a local boy and a lifelong supporter of the club, I am very pleased that we have been able to agree a deal with the Manchester United board that delegates us management responsibility of the football operations of the club. Whilst the commercial success of the club has ensured there have always been available funds to win trophies at the highest level, this potential has not been fully unlocked in recent times,” Ratcliffe was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “Our shared ambition is clear: we all want to see Manchester United back where we belong, at the very top of English, European and world football,” he added. With AFP inputs