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British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has agreed to buy a 25% stake in Manchester United (Manchester United), a prestigious English professional football club, for 1.03 billion pounds (about 1.7047 trillion won).

Manchester United announced on its official website on the 25th that "Ratcliffe has agreed to take over up to 25% of the company."

According to Manchester United, Ratcliffe will acquire up to 25 percent of Class B shares and 25 percent of Class A shares previously held by the Glazer family. Both the Glazer family and Class A shareholders will receive 33 dollars per share. The deal will be finalized after approval by the Premier League secretariat and others. Apart from the acquisition of the stake, Ratcliffe has also decided to invest 300 million dollars at Old Trafford, Manchester United's home stadium.

Manchester United was previously acquired by Malcolm Glazer, an American sports tycoon, in 2005. Since Malcolm's death in 2014, his children have been co-owners. As former coach Alex Ferguson fell into a slump in 2013 after his retirement, the Glazer family announced its intention to sell Manchester United in November last year. Not only Ratcliffe, but also Sheikh Jasim, chairman of Qatar's Islamic Bank, and several hedge funds jumped into the race, but they failed.

The board of directors of Manchester United has decided to delegate the responsibility of managing the club's soccer operations to Ineos. Manchester United is ranked eighth in this season's EPL with nine wins, one draw and eight losses.

Ratcliffe said, "I'm delighted to be signing a contract as a 'local boy' and a lifelong supporter of the club. Thanks to the club's commercial success, I always had enough money to lift the trophy, but my potential has not been fully realized recently. I will utilize Ineos Sports Group's world-class knowledge, expertise, and talents to help the club develop and provide the necessary funds for investing in the future. We all want to see Manchester United rise to the top of English, European, and global soccer."

Ratcliffe is the founder of the global chemical group ineos and is a native of pale swiss, Greater Manchester, England. He acquired the Swiss professional football club Lausanne Sports in 2017 and bought a stake in the French professional football league 1 Nice through ineos in 2019 to become the owner of the club.