Sir Jim Ratcliffe is looking to sell INEOS’ majority share in French football club Nice as he continues to place more focus on his minority ownership of Manchester United.
A report from The Athletic revealed Ratcliffe’s INEOS has brought onboard investment bank Lazard to oversee the search for a new buyer, reportedly seeking up to €250m for the Ligue 1 team.
The British billionaire’s company acquired Nice in 2019 to join the INEOS Football Group, joining Swiss football team FC Lausanne-Sport and eventually Manchester United. INEOS acquired a 28% stake in the Premier League club in 2024 and currently runs all footballing operations.
Despite Nice currently sitting in fourth in Ligue 1 this season, and maintaining an upper top-half position in the league since the INEOS acquisition, Ratcliffe admitted he now does not “particularly enjoy going to watch Nice”.
In an interview with The Times in March 2025, the INEOS Founder revealed that due to the level of competition in the French football league, he has grown to not enjoy watching Nice matches, but admitted the team’s good performances this season was mainly due to scaling back his involvement with the club.
He told 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 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.”
What Ratcliffe is alluding to is the new UEFA rules centred around multi-club ownership. The rules in principle state no individual or entity can simultaneously own or have influence over more than one club that competes in UEFA’s club competitions.
This is to ensure there is fair play amongst all UEFA competing clubs and to avoid any conflicts of interest that may arise.
Due to Manchester United and Nice both competing in this season’s UEFA Europa League, Ratcliffe and INEOS were ordered by UEFA to abide by certain rules in order for Nice to compete in the competition. One rule enforced was the appointment of new directors to the board of Nice for outgoing board members who also had the same role at Manchester United.
With Ligue 1 clubs relying on revenue from broadcast rights, which has been thrown into disarray following the collapse of the four-year DAZN deal set to end this season, now appears to be the right time for Ratcliffe to sell.
A potential sale of Nice will enable Ratcliffe and INEOS to focus more on the football operations they preside over at Manchester United, but it has not been as smooth sailing as they would have hoped at Old Trafford.
A self-admitted Manchester United fan, Ratcliffe made it one of his missions to restore the club “to where it should be”. He has overseen developments to the teams Carrington training ground, as well as unveiling plans for a new £2bn, 100,000 seater stadium as part of a wider regeneration project of the surrounding Trafford area.
However, Ratcliffe’s measures to cut costs at United have received backlash from fans and former players alike. Measures such as raising the price of tickets, cutting 500 jobs and cutting lunch meals from the club’s cafeteria.
The INEOS Founder asserted that these difficult decisions were made in order to bring the club back into profitability. In its 2024 financial year report, losses for the year stood at £113m.
With a potential sale of Nice on the horizon, the money generated from the sale could see Ratcliffe inject it into his mission to bring United back to positive financial results.
