Last Wednesday, Manchester United crept back onto the market.
It may well have passed by relatively unnoticed, but August 13 was a technically-significant date for the Premier League giants.
Why? Because when the clock struck midnight a clause buried in the finer print of the deal which saw Sir Jim Ratcliffe pay £1.3bn for 25 per cent of the club last February, quietly came into play.
The clause is known as the ‘drag-along right’ – and while it is not a part of football speak, in the business world ‘drag-along rights’ are so commonplace that they have three different names for them.
The purpose is a simple one. Drag-alongs (or come-alongs or bring-alongs) exist to make it easier for a company to be sold by preventing situations in which a minority shareholder can block a deal that those who hold the majority want to go through.
In United’s case, that means that if the Glazers want to sell then Ratcliffe and Ineos now cannot stop them.
A clause that means Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos cannot stop the Glazers if they want to sell the club has come into play
Avram Glazer (centre left) was in the stands for United’s defeat by Arsenal on Sunday
The deal was that such a clause would come into play 18 months after completion of Ratcliffe’s investment. It added that, should they wish, the Glazers could not only sell their stake, but could also force the petrochemicals billionaire to do likewise with his.
Daily Mail Sport has spoken to insiders at Old Trafford, Ineos and in the Qatar homeland of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, who missed out on buying the club outright, to ascertain whether we are in for more takeover drama – and whether the Sheikh has the appetite to go again.
While there has been little noise, this is a situation which Ratcliffe is well aware of. At the unveil press conference, at Ineos’ London headquarters, he even alluded to it, although those present may not have known it at the time.
‘I don’t think we’re going to be taking the legal agreements out of the bottom drawer,’ the 72-year-old said. ‘I just hope they gather dust and we never see them. Which it should be. It should be on the basis of a relationship.’
To those with knowledge of the situation and of what has unfolded since, Ratcliffe – who was referring to the clause – hit the nail on the head with that comment. Above all else, relationship is the key to this story and the signs are that the relationship that matters is nowhere near Mancunian rocks.
Ratcliffe and the Glazers get on. At the risk of incurring the wrath of United’s fanbase, the lifelong fan from nearby Failsworth has only spoken with warmth in public about the American owners. But the reality is that his feelings towards them are authentic and not just public displays of affection. ‘They absolutely get on,’ said one source. ‘So much so that Jim has flown over to the US on multiple occasions to have board meetings on their doorstep. They are like-minded people.’
There is also a view that the Glazers know when they are onto a good thing – and that this is a good thing. That Ineos have carried out the necessary dirty work needed to put the business on track, via a significant restructuring that has seen hundreds of the workforce made redundant. There has been a period of serious bloodletting, coupled with the first ticket price rises in a long time, and the shouldering of the inevitable bad press and fan backlash that followed.
‘Ineos have come in, recognised that the business was bloated and have carried out the necessary measures to make it something approaching lean,’ the insider added. ‘They have also taken all the flak for that and for the first time in a long time, someone other than the Glazers has been taking the hits from the fanbase. That hasn’t gone unnoticed. To add to that, they have taken control of all football operations and are effectively running that side of the business, so that eases another headache. Then there’s the new stadium, which Ineos is attempting to find the funding for. They have attracted the big-hitters to the project, such as Lord Coe, they appear to have political backing locally and they are getting on with it.
The relationship between the Glazer family and Ratcliffe is said to be warm and authentic
There is an excitement within the camp about the season ahead under Ruben Amorim
‘Then there’s also the investment, which came as part of the deal. Sir Jim has put in $300m of his own money, which has paid for the £50m upgrade to Carrington. It has been a very long time since someone has put some money into Manchester United rather than take it out. To put it simply, if you’re the Glazers, what is not to like?’
While the Glazers never comment on such matters, the belief within the club is that they like what they are seeing. It is well known that Joel and Avram are the two of the five siblings most invested in the goings on at United, but it is less known that their brother Ed is also heavily involved to the extent that he has attended a number of matches, often under the radar, in recent times.
There is an excitement within the camp at what is to follow under Ruben Amorim this season, something that – despite the eventual loss – was only underlined by the opening day battle with Arsenal, which saw the debuts of three players and a unified United team on the front foot against quality opposition. The fact that they were applauded from the field, in front of Avram Glazer, will no doubt have been relayed back across the Atlantic.
Then there are other considerations. Should it get to a stage where there is an appetite to ‘open the drawer’, as Ratcliffe put it, it remains to be seen what the level of interest would be.
In February 2023, Daily Mail Sport broke the seismic story that a Qatari group was to enter the race to buy United, after the Glazers had announced that they would be open to ‘exploring strategic alternatives’. Following a laboured process which netted Raine, the US investment bank which oversaw it, no less than £24.9m, their offer of £4.79bn for the whole package was rejected in favour of Ratcliffe’s £1.25bn for a quarter stake, which had valued the club marginally higher and allowed the Glazers to remain in place.
Now that the clause is active, the obvious question is whether Sheikh Jassim and his 92 Foundation have any intention of going back in.
According to those with knowledge of the situation, while he has kept an eye on the situation and is aware of the clause, there is ‘zero interest’ in acting upon it. The simple facts of the matter are that those in Qatar have moved on and are now working on other ‘mega projects’ which include their attempt to host the 2036 Olympics. If that sounds far-fetched, those involved are deadly serious, although rival bidders India may have something to say about their chances. Very little happens in Qatar without the support of the Emir. At the moment, his total focus, it is understood, is on the Olympics. The chances of any side projects being given the green light at this moment in time are at best highly unlikely.
At the time that United were up for sale, Sheikh Jassim’s group were keen to buy a leading club in Europe. ‘That just simply isn’t the case anymore,’ an insider who worked on the original bid, named Project Ruby, explained. ‘Things have changed and the project would be seen as even more difficult now for a few reasons, not least because there’s a belief the standard of the Premier League has improved and it would be more difficult to turn things around.’
While Sheikh Jassim’s bid was a family affair, the wider success of Qatar’s ownership at Paris Saint-Germain may also have had an impact. The fact that the project in the French capital landed five trophies out of six, including a first Champions League, makes an investment in another club less attractive because someone else has already been there and done it in Europe.
The scars from that bidding process also remain. While Sheikh Jassim’s camp declined to comment, it is safe to say that their treatment did not exactly whet the appetite for more. Constant queries that went as far as querying whether Sheikh Jassim existed or had the money to buy the club – something Raine co-founder Joe Ravitch would later confirm to be the case in a later interview with The Times – hurt deeply.
But there is also the view that for a deal to happen, as unlikely as it sounds, there has to be a willing seller. And in Qatar they do not believe that to be the case. ‘There’s other priorities now,’ the insider said. ‘The Qatar universe is doing well, they are on with different projects.’
Sheikh Jassim and his 92 Foundation are not thought to have any interest in going back in for United
If there is interest from elsewhere it would need to come equipped with deep pockets. Ineos’s stake is now up to 29 per cent following that additional $300m. The ‘drag-along right’ guarantees Ratcliffe ‘the highest amount paid to any other shareholder of the same class of shares’. If the sale is within three years of Ineos’ investment, the clause states that the amount paid would be ‘at least $33 per share’ which is what Ratcliffe’s Trawlers vehicle, named after the famous Eric Cantona quote, shelled out 18 months ago. Add to that scenario the fact that Ineos would have first refusal on any offer and it becomes even less attractive to would-be buyers.
As for the Ineos camp there is, perhaps unsurprisingly, zero appetite to sell. While there is a desire to get Manchester United back to the summit of world football as quickly as possible, there is also an acceptance that this will take time. The view is that the first, difficult steps of a long journey have been taken and the hope is that the rewards are not too far away.
There is also the view that Ratcliffe did not get to a place where he is viewed among Britain’s richest by doing deals that could backfire spectacularly within the space of two years and that there may well have been off-the-record assurances, perhaps the describing of the clause as a safety mechanism to be used in a Doomsday scenario rather than a likely option.
Another source perhaps put it in the clearest terms. ‘Jim takes a lot of the s***, does a lot of the hard work and he doesn’t slag them off,’ they said. ‘Why on earth would you want to change that?’
