Manchester United’s Muslim Supporters’ Club (MUMSC) has called for the club’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to step down, describing comments he made in a BBC interview as “completely unacceptable”. The group published what it called a “statement of no confidence” on X.
In the interview, Ratcliffe described the UK as being “on the slide” from the days when it had “the greatest empire in the world”. He said: “We had the greatest empire in the world. We were a great people. We won two world wars. We’re good, honest folk. But unfortunately, at the moment, I think the UK is on the slide. It’s quite difficult to see how we arrest it.”
MUMSC responded by stressing the diversity of people connected to Manchester United. “Our players, staff, stewards, security teams and supporters come from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds. Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them,” the group said. It added: “Manchester United does not belong emotionally to investment funds, shareholders or billionaires.”
The supporters’ club said it had lost confidence in the current ownership structure. “After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club,” it said. “Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers [co-owners] and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”
Ratcliffe, who founded petrochemicals giant Ineos and has resided in Monaco since 2020, said Britain was in decline because of high taxes and immigration. His latest intervention came seven months after he told Sky News the country was being “colonised by immigrants”, remarks for which he later said he was sorry if they had “offended some people”. MUMSC said it had challenged those earlier comments, adding: “We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.” It said Ratcliffe had “again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either”, and called the latest remarks “deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable”.
Ratcliffe also said the UK had “a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment” and was “encouraging” the wealthiest to relocate. “In America, they applaud people who create wealth,” he said. “And the good thing about those people who create wealth is that they then spend that wealth in the economy in which they’re resident. And, unfortunately, with the things that they’ve been doing, they’ve been encouraging the people who have created wealth to leave the UK because it’s just become uncomfortable for them for tax reasons or whatever.” The UK’s tax burden has risen to its highest level since the second world war at about 35.3% of GDP, though the Office for Budget Responsibility says it remains well below the average of 14 western European economies.
Ratcliffe has also been at odds with Manchester United fans over the summer after the club embarked on a major ticket-touting crackdown that revoked 685 season tickets, prompting protests from supporter groups such as the 1958. He was already fiercely unpopular among the Old Trafford faithful after deciding to increase ticket prices and sack 450 club employees.
Ratcliffe also criticised the government’s decision not to invest further in North Sea resources by granting licences for the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gasfields, calling it “insanity”, and warned that the UK’s reliance on energy imports meant the country could “run out of gas” if there was a cold spell this winter. “The risk you’ve got this winter is that we run out of gas. If we have a really sharp cold spell, then there is conceivably the possibility that we’ll run out of gas and have to switch the industry off,” he said.
The government responded that it was working to deliver growth and that business investment had increased in the last two years. A spokesperson told the BBC they did not foresee any problems with gas supply: “We have a diverse energy mix and are confident in our security of supply.” Asked whether he planned to return to the UK, Ratcliffe said: “Not at the moment, no. I don’t see growth being tackled. Two things: we need politicians who are tough enough to deal with some very difficult problems, and we know what the problems are. And we need politicians who will make decisions which are good for the country, not good for themselves and their party. And we haven’t had one of those for a long time.”