Manchester United\u2019s majority owners, the Glazer family, were reported to be \u201chorrified\u201d after co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe made comments describing the United Kingdom as being \u201ccolonised by immigrants.\u201d A public apology, specifically for any offence taken to the language used, was later issued but the petrochemicals billionaire overall continued to stand by what he said. United followed with a broad statement underlining the club\u2019s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. <\/p>\n
Ratcliffe has also been reported to have apologised to the Glazers. The family includes six siblings among Manchester United plc directors, including executive co-chairmen Joel and Avram. Although the Glazers have largely remained silent about the club since the 2005 takeover, Ratcliffe has emerged as the public face of ownership despite holding just under 30% and having control of sporting decisions. That influence has coincided with widespread cuts of non-football jobs over the past 18 months. <\/p>\n
A BBC Sport report quoted a source close to the Glazers saying that they feel Ratcliffe\u2019s immigration comments show a \u201cdisregard for their ownership,\u201d particularly because Malcolm Glazer\u2019s parents were Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants to the United States. The same source warned of commercial consequences. \u201cBig multi-nationals want to associate with youth, positivity and forward-thinking. United is currently struggling for sponsors … and this exacerbates that. [Potential partners could] run a mile.\u201d <\/p>\n
The immediate commercial picture already contains warning signs. The club currently lack a commercial training kit partner, no longer have a contract with Marriott International, and will shortly need to consider sleeve sponsor options. Commercial revenue for last season was \u00a3333.3 million, up 10% on 2023\u201324, but reports note United are no longer the same dominant force commercially after years of sporting underachievement. <\/p>\n
Separately, Ratcliffe is under investigation by the FA to determine whether he brought English football into disrepute. The combination of reputational damage and commercial fragility is the core concern for the Glazer family and potential partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Glazer family ‘horrified’ by Ratcliffe comments; apology followed amid commercial, reputational risk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1038,1471,1379],"class_list":["post-6916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-accounts-2024-25","tag-all-red-all-equal","tag-club-structure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916","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=6916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}