Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has confirmed he looked at buying Newcastle United – among other English clubs – in a wide-ranging interview in which he speaks about valuations making investing in Premier League clubs prohibitive.
The INEOS billionaire, who bankrolled the historic effort to break the 2 hour marathon and has taken over Nice in Ligue 1, spoke to the Times about potential interest in Newcastle , as well as Manchester United, Leeds and Chelsea.
The article states that Sir Jim “looked into potential stadium growth” at Newcastle before concluding that it was “not great”. He has been put off investing in Premier League clubs because they do not represent a good return on investment.
He said: “Ineos never wants to be the dumb money in town, never, never.”
In the interview it’s claimed that he was quoted a fee of more than £3billion to buy Chelsea, a club where he toured the training ground with Roman Abramovich. Newcastle are understood to be valued at around £350million – a price tag that Mike Ashley has struggled to find serious investors at because of the addiional work required to bring United up to the levels of the top four.
Of his Premier League enquiries, Ratcliffe said: “So you quickly get into some pretty stratospheric numbers. And even though clubs have those valuations today, nobody has ever paid those amounts of money. How much did Abramovich pay for Chelsea, £100 million? The Glazers [at United], what £500 million? You can say it’s worth three, four billion but no one has ever paid those sums.
“Ineos has always tried to take a sensible approach. We don’t like squandering money or we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s part of our DNA, trying to spend sensibly. It’s quite difficult to make money so you don’t want to waste it.”
Of his enquries about Premier League investment, he confirmed he had spoken to many before opting to buy Nice because it represented better value. “You might be surprised how many are happy to have a conversation,” he said of his conversations with club owners.
