Ratcliffe makes ALARMING Ineos admission as Man Utd struggles continue

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 29 Mar 2025 04:45 CDT
• 3 min read

News

Could Manchester United be better without interference from Ineos? That’s the message that Sir Jim Ratcliffe might just have sent via Ligue 1 side Nice, which the group also owns.

Man Utd are currently in the grip of their most miserable Premier League season in the club’s history, with Ruben Amorim’s side sitting 13th in the table.

Champions League football remains on the cards for next season via the Europa League, in which the Red Devils will face Lyon in the quarter-finals, but long-term concerns over the health of the team remain.

In particular, Man Utd face difficult decisions in the summer due to the club’s debt. The Premier League’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules could see them forced to sell rising talent Kobbie Mainoo or Alejandro Garnacho.

Now Ratcliffe has faced something of a broadside from France, where Nice head coach Franck Haise has said that the team has improved since Ineos were forced to restructure their ownership of the club to allow both teams to play in the Europa League.

Without that, the Manchester side would have been banned from playing in the competition – something that Chelsea could be faced with in the Champions League next season.

Nice better off without Ineos?

Haise was responding to being questioned about Ratcliffe saying he did not particularly like watching Nice because the level wasn’t high enough.

“He admitted that the club did it’s best work in the first year Ineos left Nice,” Haise, who was considered as a replacement for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, admitted to Ouest France.

“He wasn’t talking about this season because he’s not come to see a single match. But when he came to Nice in previous seasons, the team lost every single time – so maybe it’s a good thing that he didn’t come!

“Anyway, obviously for us and those who were here before I joined, it’s not very pleasant to hear that, even if I think there was a bit of awkwardness in what he said.”

Nice stand a strong chance of Champions League qualification this season as they lie fourth in the standings, a place that would take them into the playoff stage for the 2025/26 competition.