Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS, Manchester United’s minority owner, has put Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport up for sale. INEOS, whose global headquarters had been in the city between 2010 and 2016, bought the team in November 2017. At the time, it looked like more like an exercise in corporate social responsibility than the first step in the creation of a multi-sport empire that would eventually span cycling, F1, football, rugby union and sailing. But that empire is now in retreat, with the decision to sell Lausanne coming after abrupt exits from sponsorship deals with the All Blacks (New Zealand, rugby union) and Tottenham Hotspur in 2025, a messy divorce from America’s Cup partner Sir Ben Ainslie and the decision to put French club OGC Nice on the market. INEOS will be hoping for a much quicker exit from Lausanne than their long, painful goodbye at Nice. The French side have won three of their last four games to climb to mid-table in Ligue 1 but the club’s fan bas...