REVEALED: Ratcliffe's SHOCK Man Utd ALTERNATIVE

Tom Weber

• Updated: 30 Jun 2023 17:45 BST
• 3 min read

Sir Jim Ratcliffe attempted to acquire a 50 per cent stake in Barcelona, a new book reveals.

The INEOS chief, currently embroiled in a heated battle with Sheikh Jassim for ownership of Manchester United, has previously tried to invest in the Blaugrana, as revealed by a new book and relayed by The Times.

It would perhaps have been a better use of his time seeing as though his current United bid appears to be 'dead in the water,' according to Bloomberg. Red Devils minority owners have threatened to sue should the British billionaire beat out competition from the Qatari banker, who is now increasingly confident of striking a deal.

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His offer of a partial takeover that would only see him buy out the Glazers has left minority shareholders infuriated as they would receive little to nothing, while United's hated American proprietors would pocket everything.

It may have never even come to this had Ratcliffe's Barcelona proposal been accepted.

Significant investment

According to this new book, Ratcliffe's camp and Joan Laporta "had an extremely interesting conversation" after the latter returned to his role as Barcelona president.

"We told them, 'Don’t do it, guys - we'll put in two or three billion, renovate the Nou Camp and have 50 per cent ownership - and sign a deed to say we’d never sell.' Our interest was in football alone, not making money. I think it would have worked well."

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"We talked about it," the book continues, "but, in the end, they didn't think they could go to the fans with it. The road they are going down is a disaster. We tried to point that out and they said, 'We know, but...' They are all short-termers because the president comes in, does it for five years and hands the mess over to someone else."

"They have now sold a chunk of the TV rights, and merchandising rights, for the next 25 years. They've sold them to American hedge funds. So they’ve got this big slug of cash, which they can now... waste."