Sir Jim Ratcliffe has hit out at UEFA from blocking Manchester United from signing Nice defender Jean-Clair Tobido.
As well as controlling football operations at United, Ratcliffe also owns French club Nice, with UEFA determined to take a hard line on multi-club ownership. Under UEFA rules, a single owner is not allowed to have control over two clubs competing in the same competition, with United and Nice taking part in the Europa League next season.
That means Ratcliffe must place Nice into a 'blind trust', but the billionaire INEOS owner has criticsed UEFA for preventing clubs who belong to the same group from trading players. Although Ratcliffe declined to name the player, it is known to be £35million-rated Tobido, who United wanted to sign this summer but have been told by UEFA any such deal is prohibited.
“They’ve said we can sell him to another Premiership club, but we can't sell to Manchester United,” Ratcliffe told Bloomberg. “But that's not fair on the player and I don’t see what that achieves.”
Ratcliffe opened up on the challenge facing United and his bid to take the club back to the top, insisting the culture has to change in order for the team to be successful again. “The coach isn't the central issue at Manchester United,” said Ratcliffe.
“It’s a sports club. It needs to be competitive, it needs a degree of intensity, but with a supportive side to it, because you are dealing with players who are relatively young. It hasn’t had that type of environment historically.”
Ratcliffe also hinted at a change in transfer policy at United, focused on buying young players with long-term value, rather than over-paying for big stars as the club have done in the past.
“Manchester United doesn't have any players that are valued at €100 million or more,” said Ratcliffe, who also said buying one megastar “isn’t going to solve the problem at Manchester United.”
The INEOS chairman added that Nice could be “very complimentary to United for two reasons.” Ratcliffe, who purchased the club in 2019, explained: “One, you can blood younger players in Nice better than at United. Occasionally you get a Kobbie Mainoo but it can be harder to blood player at United and that would obviously be of benefit to Nice.”