Manchester United's ownership is under renewed pressure after the club's Muslim supporters group demanded the departure of co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe following his remarks about immigration and the state of the country. The Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club (MUMSC) said Ratcliffe's comments were "deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable" and declared it had lost confidence in the current ownership structure.
MUMSC's statement recalled that Ratcliffe had apologised earlier this year for language some found offensive, but said his latest interview showed no lesson had been learned. "We condemned those comments then," the group said. It added that Ratcliffe placed immigration and welfare recipients at the centre of his diagnosis of Britain’s problems and argued that nobody was "tough enough" to deal with them.
The group also broadened its criticism beyond the interview, urging the Glazer family to quit as well. MUMSC pointed to higher ticket prices, a stadium allowed to deteriorate and "a football team that continues to fall further behind where Manchester United should be" as reasons its concerns extend beyond the pitch. The statement concluded, "Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go."
Ratcliffe, the billionaire founder of Ineos and one of Britain's wealthiest individuals, acquired a 27.7% stake in Manchester United in 2024. Since then he has led a wide organisational reshuffle that included overseeing 450 redundancies, revamping senior management and sacking two managers. He campaigned for Leave in the 2016 EU referendum and has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020.
The club previously responded after his February remarks by saying it "prides itself" on being "inclusive." At the time, members of the Glazer family were reported to be horrified by those comments and to view them as showing disregard for their ownership. On the field, United begin the weekend 13th in the Premier League after taking four points from their first four matches, and they were eliminated from the Carabao Cup in a 3-2 home defeat by Brighton.
MUMSC said many of its members had hoped Ratcliffe's arrival would bring meaningful change after years under the Glazers. With public calls for both Ratcliffe and the Glazers to step down now explicit, the club faces heightened scrutiny from supporters over both conduct off the pitch and performance on it.
