Who is the owner of Manchester United?

The Red Devils have seen a change of ownership only twice in their history.

Manchester United are one of the most famous clubs in football. They have achieved many trophies. Since it was established the club was managed by many big names and was represented by many prominent players.

But to run a club they need an owner who invests in the club and spends money to build a team from scratch. Not only an owner is enough but the club also needs a board where they have different people who cater to other football club-related operations.

But the owner is the most important person in the club. He runs the team and makes many crucial decisions hoping to change the club’s fortunes and turn them into a competitive side.

United are one of the oldest clubs in England. Their first owners were the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) depot at Newton Heath, who established the club in 1878. They gave the name Newton Heath LYR Football Club which was subsequently renamed to Manchester United in 1902.

Who owns Manchester United?

As years have gone by the club witnessed a change in ownership. We saw new owners taking over the team. In 2003 the late Malcolm Glazer, the father of Avram and Joel bought a small share of the team. Later they completely purchased the club through a leveraged buyout two years later in a deal worth £790m. 

The team was the most dominant team in the Premier League and won numerous trophies throughout their tenure. But things quickly went south. Fans saw how badly the team was run. They saw little improvement in their abilities to turn the club’s affairs.

With lots of protests and fans’ demands for a change of ownership, the Glazer family finally decided to sell the club. But they were reluctant to sell the entire club’s share. Finally, they only gave a small amount of stake to British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who runs petrochemicals giant INEOS.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe acquired a 25 per cent stake for around £1.25 billion following a long saga involving a rival bid from Qatari billionaire Sheikh Jassim. 

Now the Glazer family are not in control of the club’s operations. It is overseen by Jim Ratcliffe. He has so far invested £245 million in the club to help improve the infrastructure and the squad. All this has been done in the hope of making them title contenders once again.

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