Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has opened up on the savage job losses and brutal cost-cutting measures he claims were necessary to keep the club financially viable
Manchester United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe had a meeting with Ruben Amorim this week.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has defended his brutal cost-cutting measures at Manchester United and said they were needed to cut out “mediocrity” at the club.
Ratcliffe has presided over a huge raft of measures designed to cut costs at United, since spending £1billion to acquire a 27.7 percent shareholding in the club in February 2024
Billionaire INEOS chief Ratcliffe has overseen the culling of up to 450 jobs at United since he bought a minority stake in United, as well as stopping the policy of free meals for club staff.
Defending his savage cost-cutting decisions, Ratcliffe said: “The costs were just too high. There are some fantastic people at Manchester United, but there was also a level of mediocrity and it had become bloated. I got a lot of flak for the free lunches, but no-one’s ever given me a free lunch.”
Ratcliffe, who also angered United fans by raising match-day ticket prices to £66 per game, with no concessions for children or pensioners, said improving the club’s financial performance was the key to sustained success on the pitch.
United co-owner Ratcliffe has defended his controversial cost-cutting measures at the club(Image: Michael Regan – UEFA, UEFA via Getty Images)
“There are two halves to a football team,” said Ratcliffe. “There’s the business side and the sports side. The biggest correlation, like it or not, between results and any external factor – is profitability.
“The more cash you’ve got, the better squad you can build. It’s like a Formula One car – the better car you can build, the quicker you go. The better your squad, the better your football should be.
“So a lot of what we’ve done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.
“If you look at our results for last year, we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest ever. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we weren’t in the Champions League.
“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”
Ratcliffe, consoling Amorim after United’s Europa League final defeat, said a return to success will take time(Image: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Ratcliffe said he understood the anger among fans over United’s poor results but claimed getting the team into a position where they can challenge for major trophies is a long-term project.
“The press, sometimes I don’t understand,” said Ratcliffe. “They want overnight success. They think it’s a light switch. You know, you flick a switch and it’s all going to be roses tomorrow.
“You can’t run a club like Manchester United on knee-jerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.”
Ratcliffe, already unpopular with United fans, risked further alienating the support base by praising reviled majority owners the Glazers, who have drained more than £1billion out of the club over their 20-year ownership to line their own pockets.
“They get a bad rap,” said Ratcliffe. “But they are really nice people and they are really passionate about the club.”
Asked about his relationship with the Glazers, Ratcliffe said they were content to let him take charge of the club. “That probably sums it up.,” said Ratcliffe. “We’re local, and they’re the other side of the pond.
“That’s a long way away to try and manage a football club as big as complex as Manchester United. We’re here with feet on the ground.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was speaking to The Business podcast. The interview can be found here https://podfollow.com/the-business