Tottenham have financial asset Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants at Man United as £105m at stake
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s latest comments about the Premier League’s finance rules show that the Man United co-owner wants one thing that Tottenham have.
Ratcliffe has made a bold start to his premiership at Old Trafford since he became the club’s single largest shareholder following his £1.2bn purchase of a 27 per cent stake.
The Manchester-born chemicals billionaire has made a number of public appearances in that time, which is a departure from the absentee approach adopted by the Glazer family.
In his latest interview, the 71-year-old expressed his frustration at a number of issues – from multi-club ownership rules to the introduction of an independent regulator for English football.
He also discussed the Premier League’s associated party transaction rules, which are currently under the spotlight due to Man City’s legal challenge against the system.
His comments also signalled that he may be dissatisfied that he feels he cannot transfer a commercial deal his INEOS company struck with Tottenham over to his new club, United.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe slates Premier League finance rules
The Premier League’s associated party transaction rules were voted through by clubs in the wake of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s takeover of Newcastle United in 2021.
They were introduced to prevent clubs from striking artificially inflated sponsor deals with their owners’ companies in order to circumvent financial fair play, or FFP (now Profit and Sustainability Rules, or PSR).
At the time, the measures had the support of Man United, but Ratcliffe’s latest comments indicate that their stance may now have changed.
Speaking to Bloomberg about City’s legal case against the system, he said: “I can understand why they are challenging it.
“You can understand why they would say that they want an open market, a free market.”
Why is this significant in terms of Ratcliffe’s relationship with Tottenham? Because his INEOS company has a long-running commercial partnership with the North London club
As well as being Spurs’ hand sanitiser partner during the pandemic (not as trivial a link-up as it might initially sound), the INEOS Grenadier is also the club’s official 4×4 vehicle partner.
The deals were struck well before Ratcliffe assumed control of United in February this year.
If the associated party rules were scrapped, Ratcliffe would likely make INEOS a principal partner of United for a huge sum, giving the club a huge fee in the process.
That in turn would allow them more freedom to manoeuvre in terms of FFP’s £105m allowable loss limit, which the investor also criticised during the Bloomberg interview.
As it stands, however, Ratcliffe is very unlikely to action a big INEOS-United sponsorship deal because of the scrutiny it would inevitably garner from the Premier League’s Fair Market Value committee.
Ratcliffe wants what Tottenham have
The sustainability-first approach implemented by chairman and co-owner Daniel Levy has not put them in a commanding position in terms of Profit and Sustainability Rules.
They have the financial wiggle room that United currently do not after years of inefficient spending.
Ratcliffe is campaigning to make United more efficient in the vein of Spurs and is orchestrating a top-to-bottom overhaul of the club.
That is likely to include a huge stadium rebuild, a la Tottenham.
But the strategy will not bear fruit overnight, hence Ratcliffe‘s frustration that he cannot bolster United through associated party deals in the short term.
