The owner of INEOS buys part of Manchester United, will anything change in the cycling team?

Jim Ratcliffe, owner of INEOS, invests 1.5 billion euros to acquire 25% of the shares of Manchester United, a historic club that, in the last decade, has been unable to conquer the Premier League. Another piece for the INEOS Sport empire that also sponsors Formula 1, America's Cup Sailing and, of course, the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team

INEOS Sport continues to grow after acquiring a large part of Manchester United's shareholding

Jim Ratcliffe, owner of the petrochemical firm INEOS, takes control of the shareholding of a historic club like Manchester United, until now owned by the Glazer family.

The club, which is not going through its best sporting moment, had become an interesting treat for Qatar's petrodollars, ready to take full control of the club. However, Jim Ratcliffe, has taken the lead and with an investment of 1.5 billion euros has incorporated the iconic English club into the list of sponsorships of INEOS Sport, the company dedicated to sports sponsorships dependent on the petrochemical giant and in which the cycling team is also framed.

In addition to the necessary outlay for the acquisition of the package corresponding to 25% of the shares, Jim Ratcliffe will invest 330 million euros in improving the iconic Old Trafford stadium, seeking to boost the club to a new sporting and business stage.

In principle, this investment will not affect the budget of the cycling team or its sponsorship as Manchester United becomes another piece of INEOS Sport, a company that assumes the sponsorship of INEOS Grenadiers, Mercedes-AMG-Petronas Formula 1, INEOS Britania America's Cup boat, supporting athletics legend Eliud Kipchoge as well as the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team.

The only connection of this operation with cycling is found in the figure of Sir Dave Brailsford, founder of the Sky team that managed to conquer the Tour de France for the first time in the history of Great Britain in the figures of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome and who, since the purchase of the team by INEOS in 2019 has been disengaging from the cycling structure to carry out sports management tasks in INEOS Sports.

However, everything indicates that, after the acquisition of Manchester United, Brailsford would take on a significant role in the sports management of the British club, seeking to repeat in football the successes achieved first in British Cycling, the British cycling federation that he led to hegemony in track cycling; and later in Team Sky with the results we all know. Will the philosophy of marginal gains also work in football?