British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the petrochemical group Ineos, has reached an agreement to acquire 25% of Manchester United for around 1.25 billion pounds (around 1.44 billion euros), the English football club announced this December 24, 2023. After a year of negotiations and successive offers from Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim Ben Hamad al-Thani, president of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), the Glazer family, the American owners of the club, mark with this sale their first significant disengagement since their arrival in 2005. The agreement provides that Ineos will have “ management responsibility » football-related matters. Already the owner of OGC Nice, Ratcliffe recently declared that he wanted to see Manchester United ” find your place “. The club is currently 8th in the Premier League standings, 12 points behind leader Arsenal, and its last championship title dates back to 2013. In the Champions League, it has not lifted the trophy since 2008 and has just been eliminated from the group stage of the 2023-2024 edition, finishing last in its group.
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