Sir Jim Ratcliffe admits that he would have been open to pressing forward with a possible takeover at Manchester United had it been available this summer - but says the Glazer family do not want to sell.
As reported via a spokesperson back in August, Failsworth-born United fan Ratcliffe, 69, was interested in buying a minority stake - with a view to eventually taking full control at Old Trafford. Ratcliffe is the founder and chairman at Ineos, which is the fourth-largest chemical company in the world.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Ratcliffe as the second richest person in the UK back in April 2020, while they also ranked him the 55th richest person on the planet at that same time. As such, Ratcliffe is one person who could genuinely finance a takeover, although it appears the much-maligned Americans are not willing to part ways.
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Sir Jim was speaking at an event in London which hosted by The Financial Times in association with his company Ineos on Tuesday night. After discussing a range of business and entrepreneurial topics, the talk later switched to football and his beloved Reds.
Ratcliffe said: "Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family, whom I have met. I've met Joel and Avram and they are the nicest people, I have to say, they are proper gentlemen.
"They don't want to sell it. It's owned by the six children of the father and they don't want to sell it.
"If it had been for sale in the summer then, yes, we would have probably had a go following on from the Chelsea thing, but we can't sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available. We have an exciting sporting franchise [OGC Nice in Ligue 1], but the one thing we don't have is a premier team.
"The most popular sport in the world is football and it is the sport we were brought up with and it's the one most close to us. We really should have an asset in the sporting franchise."
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