Manchester United has published an official response after comments by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire who owns an almost 29% stake in the club. The remarks, made at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, have drawn significant public criticism and prompted a swift communications reaction from Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
Ratcliffe has been met with enormous public backlash, including from U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer\u2014\u201cOffensive and wrong\u201d, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and prominent Manchester United writer and author Andy Mitten. It has been reported there is \u201coutrage\u201d among some senior figures associated with Old Trafford\u2019s regeneration project, as well as within the club itself. His subsequent \u2018apology\u2019 only served to make it clear that he stands by what he said, apologising for the language used rather than the overall sentiment.<\/p>\n
On Thursday afternoon, Manchester United issued an official statement from the Communications Department. The statement did not mention Ratcliffe but reiterated the club\u2019s public commitments, leaving little doubt about the club\u2019s position on inclusion and diversity. The statement read in part: “Manchester United prides itself on being an inclusive and welcoming club,” and continued: “Our diverse group of players, staff and global community of supporters, reflect the history and heritage of Manchester; a city that anyone can call home.<\/p>\n
“Since launching All Red All Equal in 2016, we have embedded equality, diversity and inclusion into everything we do. We remain deeply committed to the principles and spirit of that campaign. They are reflected in our policies but also in our culture and are reinforced by our holding of the Premier League’s Advanced Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard.” The club concluded: “Manchester United reflects the unity and resilience of all the communities we are so privileged to represent. We will continue to represent our people, our city and our fans with purpose and pride.”<\/p>\n
The timing of Ratcliffe\u2019s comments is expected to dominate discussion around Manchester United for the next 11 days. The issue has overshadowed a recent resurgence under interim manager Michael Carrick. United\u2019s elimination from the FA Cup means there is no game this coming weekend, with the team not back in action until Feb. 23. Ratcliffe\u2019s comments are thought to be the subject of an investigation by the FA to determine whether his actions have brought the game into disrepute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United issues a clear equality statement after Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments and the public backlash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1348],"tags":[1471,1472],"class_list":["post-6842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","tag-all-red-all-equal","tag-equality-diversity-and-inclusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}