Sir James Ratcliffethe richest man in great Britain and is currently in the bidding to become the largest owner of Manchester Utd dispute with investors Qatarrevealed that last year he was in touch with the board of directors chaired by Joan Laporta to get 50% ownership CF Barcelona. The Barcelona club’s response was ‘no’. “We had an interesting conversation with barca and we tell them that instead of selling their assets (in the middle of the process of activating the so-called ‘levers’), we will pay them between 2,000 and 3,000 million to overhaul the structure SpotifyCamp Nou plus the purchase of 50% of the club property”, says the 70-year-old British monarch, in a fragment of a book about the group Grit, Rigor & Humor: The INEOS Story, submitted by The Times.

ratcliffe added that in conjunction with FC Barcelona He promised not to transfer his percentage to third parties later: “We also wanted to sign a statement in which we promised that we would never sell the club but barca He rejected the proposal because the owner is a partner.” Obviously, any progress in a hypothetical negotiation must go through a process of changing that Statute club with the consent of the members.

ratcliffe understand the position of Joan Laporta pointing out that “he was unable to get the proposal across to the fans, even though the path they took was disastrous. His mandate was short-term, so he came in, managed for five years and then passed the chocolates to the others”. from the sale of assets by barca: “They’ve sold part of their television and merchandising rights to an American Vulture fund for the next 25 years. So they already have a lot of money to blow.” And he added: “Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​​​​​United, City… they all have the same budget, around 930 million euros. He barca after this management has about 530 million”.

Interests from Jim Ratcliffe, with a fortune made through his petrochemical company, is well known in the world of sports. Owner of Ineos have the highest-budgeted cycling team in the peloton, participate in Sail America’s Cup whose 2024 edition will take place in Barcelona, ​​\u200b\u200bhas 33% of the team Mercedes Formula 1 and in football he is the owner Good And lausanne. Ineos also a member of All black people to improve their sports performance and move on to Eliud Kipchoge so much so that in 2019 he broke the two-hour barrier in a marathon in an all-technology-possible race.

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