Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been slammed over comments he made about another football club he owns.
Ratcliffe’s first year in charge of United has been a very difficult one with the club on track for their worst Premier League season in history.
They currently sit 13th in the table, with the sacking of Erik ten Hag and hiring of Ruben Amorim not producing the desired turnaround in form, though they could still win the Europa League.
Off the pitch, fans are less than impressed with high ticket prices while the announcement of a new 100,000 seater stadium has divided opinion.
United is not the only football club that the INEOS CEO has a stake, having purchased Swiss side Lausanne-Sport in 2017 and French team Nice in 2019.
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Due to United and Nice’s participation in the Europa League and UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership, Ratcliffe has been forced to step away from directly running both clubs and unsurprisingly choose to focus on the Premier League side.
This is an arrangement that seems to suit the 72-year-old who made a brutal confession about his Ligue 1 side in a recent interview with The Times.
‘I don’t particularly enjoy going to watch Nice because there are some good players, but the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited,’ the British billionaire said.
These comments haven’t gone down too well with Nice manager Franck Haise who suggested that Ratcliffe was in no position to judge his team having not watched them this season.
‘The article that [the comments] appeared in was a lot more complete than that,’ Haise said in a press conference ahead of Nice’s trip to Monaco on Saturday night.
‘But he [Ratcliffe] hasn’t seen a Nice match this season. He is speaking a bit more about what he saw at another time.
‘With the people who are here at the club, we are here to make the club progress in order to be even better.’
He later added: ‘It’s not that serious. We can be annoyed, that’s obvious. But is it really worth staying annoyed for a long time?
‘We have to keep working, enjoying ourselves and doing the best possible. We have to move on and continue on our path.’
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Since INEOS’ takeover, Nice have finished no higher than fifth in Ligue 1 but under Haise they are currently fourth and just two points of second-placed Marseille.
In fairness to Ratcliffe, the United chief has acknowledged that Nice are performing better in his ‘absence’, adding: ‘The best season that Nice has had is this one where we’ve not been allowed to get involved because of multi-club ownership rules.
‘They’ve been so much better without our interference! Maybe there’s a lesson there as well, you know.’
Following the March international break, United return to action on Tuesday night when they travel to high-flying Nottingham Forest.
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