Billionaire who tried to buy Barça edges closer to Manchester United deal

Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire who made a bid for a 50% stake in FC Barcelona, is back in the news.

According to 'Times Sport' last summer, Ratcliffe got in touch with Joan Laporta and had an "interesting conversation" with the head of the Catalan club, which led to a friendship between the two. The billionaire, according to the information, intended to inject between €2 and €3 billion into Barça.

"We told them we would put in €2-3 billion, renovate the Camp Nou and have 50 percent ownership, and sign a deed to say we would never sell it," he said.

In addition, the same publication reports that Ratcliffe was dismayed to learn that Laporta and his board of directors intended to negotiate the sale of a portion of the club's television rights as a way of solving their financial difficulties.

CLOSE TO MANCHESTER UNITED

According to the latest reports from Bloomberg, the billionaire has already forgotten his dream of taking half ownership of Barça and has put himself in pole position to buy the Glazer-owned Manchester United, thus beating the proposal of the Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim.

The chairman of chemical company Ineos Group Holdings SA and owner of Nice is reportedly in direct contact with the Americans, to whom he wants to present an initial proposal that could provide him with 25% of the club's shares. This initial partial stake is viewed more favourably by the Glazers, who are reluctant to sell the entire club to Qatar.

Manchester United are currently worth around $3.3 billion after the club's shares have risen in value on the New York Stock Exchange over the last 12 months.