Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s deal to buy a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United is built on a crucial assumption: that the chemicals billionaire and his team have a better idea of how to win football matches than those currently in charge.
His experience in European football has the most direct
relevance to United. His time as owner of French top tier club OGC Nice charts
a steep learning curve, costly mistakes, sporting underperformance and bad
luck, but some more recent signs of promise.
Football has been part of the Ineos empire since it acquired
Swiss club Lausanne-Sport in 2017. The team was relegated soon after. Bob
Ratcliffe, Jim’s brother who was then in charge of Ineos’ football interests,
admitted afterwards that as owners, the company had been naive by overspending
on big name players and “not getting advice from the right people”. Yet some of
those mistakes were repeated following the €110mn takeover of French club Nice
OGC in the summer of 2019.
The new owners
arrived to find a club lacking structure and run largely on longstanding
personal relationships, according to those working in French football at the
time. Instead of overhauling the set-up, Ineos chose to stay loyal to those
already at the club, taking a hands-off approach. “They quickly realised they
didn’t have the experience,” said someone who has had dealings with Nice in the
past who described Ineos’ early time in charge as “chaotic”.
The club is on its fifth permanent head coach since the
takeover, a symbol of frequent changes in direction, personal dramas and
lacklustre results.
However, Nice’s trajectory appears to have shifted since an
audit of its operations in the summer of 2022 by Ineos’ director of sport and
former cycling coach Sir Dave Brailsford, which led to a clear-out of executives
and a number of important hires. Brailsford is set to be a central player at
United.
The French side also appears to have found its rhythm on the
pitch for the first time since the takeover under new head coach Francesco
Farioli, who was virtually unknown before being hired in the summer by
Ghisolfi. The 34-year-old Italian had only been a manager in the Turkish league
for two years before his move to France. After 17 games, Nice sits second in
the table — just five points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain and well on
track for next year’s Champions League.
It remains to be seen how all these lessons will inform
decision-making at United, a far bigger club, or how Ratcliffe will navigate
his partnership with the Glazers. But the rocky years at Nice have at least
provided the Ineos team with a valuable education in European football.
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