Sir Jim Ratcliffe tried to buy Manchester United, but the Glazers said the club is NOT for sale

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has revealed that while he has told the Glazers family of his intention to buy Manchester United, he has been informed that the club is not for sale.

In an interview, Ratcliffe said: 'I want Manchester United in its entirety. I have informed the current ownership of my stance.

'I met with Joel and Avram, and they are really nice people, and they don't want to sell it. If it had been for sale, we would probably have had a go.

'We can't sit around hoping United will become available.'

He revealed that his favourite moment as a lifelong Manchester United fan was being there when they made their late comeback to win the Champions League in 1999.

He also spoke about his many other involvements in the world of sport.  Ratcliffe added: 'We have a sports franchise. We own Mercedes - robbed last year. We've got a great cycling team. We're closed with Eliud Kipchoge and the most challenging is Ben Ainslie in the America's Cup.'

However, he noted that football was something he wanted to increase his involvement in. The INEOS owner and co-founder is also in control of Ligue 1 side Nice in France's top flight, and Lausanne in Switzerland, both of which he mentioned in conversation.

'We should have an asset with a premier club,' Ratcliffe revealed. 'Nice has got a very interesting history, there's a Californian climate down there.'

In conversation with the Financial Times, the 69-year-old entrepreneur said he wasn't thinking about entering any more business sectors. Ratcliffe said: 'I can't handle more. And we've got sport, we're trying to wrap our heads around how to run a football club.'

He had previously targeted both Manchester United and Chelsea as possible acquisition targets, and the topic was a point of discussion during Tuesday evening's discussion, which also covered aspects of his career in energy and chemicals. The Glazer family have been majority shareholders of Manchester United since 2005.

Ratcliffe also revealed he met Khaldoon Mubarak, the owner of Manchester City, on the guise of chemical investments - but then revealed: 'After 2 hours and 15 minutes, we got onto the subject of chemicals. You can probably imagine what we were talking about.'

He also elaborated further about his involvements with Nice and Lausanne.

'We were fairly hands off with Nice, until this summer. We're quite focused on what we can do about Nice,' he told the FT’s Jonathan Guthrie.

'The Swiss league is the Swiss league, it's not at the same level as the French league or the English league. But we have a good team.'

He also revealed bonding with German union workers by talking about football.

More to follow...