BRITAIN’s richest man has ruled out bids for Premier League powerhouses Liverpool and Manchester United.
The Merseysiders were recently put up for sale by their American owners Fenway Sports Group after 12 years of ownership.
And speculation is rife that the Glazer family are finally willing to sell up shop after years of protest from angry United fans.
But Sir Jim Ratcliffe won’t be putting himself in the running to take ownership of either north west club and will continue to focus his efforts on getting French outfit Nice to the summit of Ligue 1.
A spokesperson for Ratcliffe told The Telegraph: “Our position has developed since the summer and we are now focusing our efforts in Nice and raising our ambitions for the club to make them into a top-tier club in France to compete with PSG.
“This would represent much better value for our investment than buying one of the top-tier Premier League clubs.”
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It was assumed Ratcliffe would be interested in purchasing Liverpool or United following his failed efforts to acquire Chelsea.
Ratcliffe failed in a £4.25billion bid to take charge of the west Londoners, who are now under the ownership of an American consortium led by Todd Boehly.
The 70-year-old’s decision to rule himself out of buying the Red Devils comes three months after he expressed an interest in buying out the Glazers.
The billionaire, who is a Manchester United fan, can now focus his time and resources on turning Nice into a force capable of dethroning Paris Saint-Germain’s grip on Ligue 1.
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Ratcliffe’s Ineos company bought the French outfit – who are currently in ninth place in the French division – for £91million in 2019.
FSG’s decision to put Liverpool up for sale has perplexed many, although not former Manchester United defender Gary Neville.
During an episode of The Overlap, he said: “It absolutely makes sense.
“They haven’t got the money really, FSG, to compete with the other teams in the league.
“They’ve developed the stadium, they’ve got Jurgen Klopp at a point whereby, how long is he going to be around for? Is it two years, is it three years?
“If that Chelsea valuation, which at this moment in time sets the standard for valuations, they’re thinking now is the time potentially for us to get out because if we dip down the league.
“If people think ‘hang on a minute, Boehly’s overpaid at Chelsea’, and it becomes a bit more of a struggle in the next couple of years, they’re probably thinking now is the right time.”
Neville reckons it won’t be long before the Glazers follow suit and think put United up for sale, saying: “And I think the Glazer family will be in a similar situation. I suspect both of them will be looking for ‘outs’ or ‘part-outs’.”
He added: “The Glazer family, I think there’s a couple of them that want to stay in, but with FSG, they I think put a £3-4bn valuation on Liverpool when they raised some money coming out of Covid. That’s where they put the valuation at.
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“They could probably get that at this moment in time, they might not be able to get that in two or three years.
“And they certainly can’t compete financially with some of the other clubs in the league. So I think it’s not as big a surprise when you look at some of the evidence surrounding it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
