Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s relationship with Sir Ben Ainslie and their shared mission to win the America’s Cup is drifting in the direction of the rocks.
It’s understood that the Manchester United co-owner and Ainslie, a four-time Olympic champion, are near splitting after two unsuccessful makes an attempt to win sport’s oldest trophy underneath Ratcliffe’s Ineos banner.
Whereas INEOS Workforce Britannia declined to touch upon experiences of tensions between Ainslie and Ratcliffe, sources say the long-standing partnership has turn out to be frayed amid planning for the following version of the Cup.
Within the wake of final October’s defeat to Emirates Workforce New Zealand, which marked the primary time since 1964 that Britain had a yacht within the ultimate, each Ratcliffe and Ainslie acknowledged a need for a brand new industrial companion to come back in and lighten the burden on Ineos for the following version.
Now it seems seemingly that Ratcliffe will step away fully, having invested north of £200million within the mission. The event comes at a time when excessive cost-cutting measures have been deployed at United and the Ineos Grenadiers are actively searching for exterior sponsorship, with Ratcliffe unwilling to foot your complete invoice essential to get them again to the entrance of the peloton.
As well as making to 250 redundancies at United in 2024, Ratcliffe additionally ended Sir Alex Ferguson’s £2m-a-year ambassadorial function and wage cuts are within the pipeline for a number of former stars together with Bryan Robson, Andy Cole and Denis Irwin.
Ainslie, who first struck up his relationship with Ratcliffe over a gin and tonic in Mayfair, mentioned final October that he’ll proceed by way of to the following America’s Cup no matter who’s signing the cheques. As a part of the Ineos empire, and supported by technological enter from the Mercedes F1 set-up, Ainslie’s crew badly underperformed of their first collaboration in 2021, earlier than profitable the Challenger Collection in 2024 and finally dropping within the ultimate.
Tensions are believed to be fraying between Sir Ben Ainslie and Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe (proper)
