Jim Ratcliffe’s shameless comments signal soccer’s turn toward total Trumpism

Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe received widespread criticism after he told Sky News last week that ‘the UK is being colonized by immigrants’. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Did British petrochemicals billionaire and Manchester United’s controlling minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, really mean it when he proclaimed to Sky News that “the UK is being colonized by immigrants”?

Is Ratcliffe simply a gutter racist or actually making a cynical political play that may redound to his benefit down the line when Britain faces down yet another period of political upheaval as the country’s old factions continue to fracture? There’s reasonable debate to be had there.