Sir Jim Ratcliffe made enquiries into potentially buying Manchester United from the Glazer family, reports claim.
Britain’s richest man has been making moves into the sporting world recently, with a takeover of Team Sky completed earlier this year, and the purchase of Ligue 1 football club Nice said to be close.
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The petrochemicals tycoon, said to be worth over £21billion, also owns FC Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland, and is reported to have previously made bids to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich.
The 66-year-old is known to remain keen on the Blues, and he has strong links with Chelsea as he has a box at their Stamford Bridge home, though the Oldham-born billionaire actually grew up a Man United supporter.
And utdreport claim Sir Jim opened talks over potentially taking over the Red Devils, but was put off by the Glazer family’s asking price.
Anti-Glazer sentiment has reached a new high after a handful of years of relative calm, and earlier this year there were rumours Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was keen on buying the club.
These links have died down over recent months, though United fans continue to back the ‘#GlazersOut’ campaign on social media.
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Discussing his interest in the football world in May, Sir Jim said: “I’m a tortured Manchester United fan. We [Ineos] have dipped our toe in the water with football.”