United owner Ratcliffe admits INEOS made 'a lot of cock-ups' at Nice & Lausanne

Manchester United's new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has admitted INEOS made 'a lot of cock-ups' at both Nice and Lausanne but has revealed that he is glad his team made those mistakes before arriving at Old Trafford.

The British billionaire's deal to purchase a 27.7 per cent stake in United was approved by the Premier League on Tuesday.

It means INEOS, who also own FC Lausanne-Sport and OGC Nice, will now take control of football operations at Old Trafford after Ratcliffe's £1billion investment in the club.

But the petrochemicals magnate and his right-hand man, Sir Dave Brailsford, both have experience of managing and operating top-level sports teams.

In fact, Ratcliffe revealed that INEOS had made several big errors in the past, that he believes have now put them in good stead after arriving at Old Trafford.

Speaking to the media for the first time since the deal was approved, Ratcliffe, who had also tried to buy Chelsea, was asked whether the London club had shown how not to do things, given their recent spending but lack of on field results.

'I don’t want to finish up criticising Chelsea,' he answered.

'But what I would say is that, in having bought other clubs in Lausanne and Nice, we have made a lot of cock-ups.

'We’ve made some really stupid decisions in both those clubs. There are a lot of organisations in the world where, if you make a mistake, you get shot, so nobody ever puts their head above the parapet.'

The organisation completed a deal to purchase Ligue 1 side Nice in 2019 for £88m. INEOS also bought Swiss club Lausanne back in 2017.

Ratcliffe has big plans to help change things at United. He stressed Old Trafford is 'in need of refurbishment' and has ambitious plans to transform the decaying 74,000-seater stadium