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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has refused to explicitly blame the Glazer family for the woes that the club currently finds itself in.
Ineos took a 27.7% stake in Manchester United football club in December 2023 and even though they are in charge of football decisions, the majority of the club is still owned by the deeply unpopular Glazer family.
A document submitted to the New York Stock Exchange in late 2023 highlighted that the two parties have agreed not to make public statements that “constitute an ad hominem attack on, criticise, or otherwise disparage, the sellers [The Glazers], the company [United] or their respective affiliates.”
In an interview with Gary Neville on the Overlap, this seemed very much still the case as Sir Jim Ratcliffe refused to hold the Glazers accountable for their role in the decline of the football club.
Neville highlighted that Ratcliffe has put in £200 million of his own money, yet the Glazers are taking £200 million in dividends and pressed him on why he is accepting his money being “whittled away” while they don’t contribute anything.
In response Ratcliffe joked that his money “is all gone” but when pushed further he deflected from the American owners and said “it’s not the solution to keep throwing money at the problem. You have got to get the house in order. Debt increased by £330 million in the last four years because the club is spending more than it is earning.”
Neville interjected that this is because the Glazers won’t put any money in but once again the Ineos chief chose not to focus on the role of his business partners.
When asked to sum up the current problem he said, “it’s a bloated organisation and it has made mistakes in recruitment. I don’t think the solution to the problem at Manchester United is throwing money at it.”
Neville then queried why such a successful businessman is happy to pay for their mistakes and highlighted that fans are also doing so though increased ticket prices, people losing their jobs and free lunches at the club.
He once again side-stepped criticism of his business partners and argued “debt will come down if we are successful in what we are doing at the moment. The cost of running club and expenditure on squad have gone through the roof, the salary bill has gone through the roof and the performances on the pitch have declined.”
Ratcliffe then went on to state that he can’t spend the Glazers money for them and characterised that their business relationship as “very professional” and “they are letting us get on with it.”
Neville then claimed that he has just created a shield for the owners of the past 20 years and that he and Ineos are now getting the flak for the Glazers’ mistakes.
The Ineos boss replied, “yes it is true, change is always uncomfortable, human beings don’t like change they much prefer to stick their heads in the sand and assume it will all just go away. Change requires some unpopular decisions. I think I have to accept I am going to be unpopular. Maybe I will be unpopular for a long period of time. It is worth being unpopular to fight through the changes that will get Manchester United back to where it should be.”
He then defended the Glazers after admitting that he knows that a lot of people have a problem with the family, to which Neville added, “rightly so”.
Ratcliffe made the unpopular comment that they are only to blame “to an extent” but that in reality they are 3000 miles away and gave “a lot of rope” to previous management teams who have a lot to answer for.
He also stated that they have not been involved in the day-to-day running of the club, so can’t assume as much of the blame as fans like to accuse them of.
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