Ineos selling Lausanne-Sport shows multi-club model has failed

It’s been a busy week for Ineos’ sporting empire.

From Jim Ratcliffe putting Swiss club Lausanne-Sport up for sale after nine years as owner to Manchester United deciding to give Michael Carrick more time as head coach, there has been no shortage of stories written about the Ineos sporting empire.

The Lausanne-Sport project hasn’t gone as planned. They sit at the bottom of the Swiss Super League and could suffer relegation for the third time under Ineos ownership. On top of that, reports suggest they are losing £5m annually. Ineos are also trying to sell Ligue 1 outfit Nice after cutting their original price.

Meanwhile, at United, Ineos’ popularity has never been as low. They are regarded as poor owners – hand-in-hand with the Glazers, steering the club in the wrong direction. It remains to be seen if Ineos selling other clubs will have any impact on their influence at Old Trafford, a stadium they want to move away from to build a new 100,000-capacity ground.

Kieran Maguire verdict on Ineos’ multi-club model failure

Ineos, who own a minority stake in United, bought Lausanne in November 2017. The connection with the club stems from Ineos’ previous headquarters (between 2010 and 2016) being based in Lausanne.

After a poor start to the new season, winning just one of their first 11 matches, Ineos are looking to sell the club and cash in. United fans will be eager to learn what this means for the Premier League club.

Football finance expert and The Price of Football podcast host Kieran Maguire doesn’t believe it will make any difference to their running of United. However, it’s further proof that the Ineos sporting empire has been a failure.

“It’s not going to move the dial. I think it’s an acknowledgement that their attempt to apply an MCO model (multi-club ownership model) has failed,” Maguire told United In Focus.

“They’ve got mediocre performance out of all of the clubs under their umbrella, and they’re not making any money. They just want to reduce their losses as well because all clubs lose money, and they don’t seem to be making any progress with them. So, I don’t see it being linked to anything to do with Manchester United apart from perhaps taking some of Ineos staff away from Lausanne and moving them elsewhere in the Ineos Empire, which has got an awful lot of things which need attention.”

When asked about Lausanne-Sport’s current position and annual losses, Maguire explains that there are examples of well-run clubs being sold at a profit.

“You’ve got to have something to offer a prospective owner,” he added.

“There’s plenty of clubs which are being sold at a profit. You just got to look at what’s happened at Valencia. Last week, for example, that’s gone for €1.2bn. It’s been valuing the whole club. We’ve got Bayern getting €250m being put in for an 8% stake.

“So, clubs that are a success can make money. With Nice, it’s the wrong market; the French market has collapsed because of the problems with the TV deal. It’s seen as a non-competitive league because it’s dominated by you know who… And on the back of that, trying to attract interest from broadcasters and commercial partners is really tough. So I think they just want to get out and cut their losses.

“It is costing them money every month to fund the club, and that’s something that Ineos don’t like doing.”

Maguire went on to add that there is no link between Ineos’ financials and what they can do with United.

“I don’t think so. It’s a different culture. Ineos and Ratcliffe are very good at operating on the margins, extracting more petrochemicals per 100 litres of input than their competitors. And that’s where they make their money.

“Football, you’re dealing with people. And you’re trying to motivate people, and you’re trying to develop players on a technical, physical, football intelligence level. And I don’t think Ineos possess any of these skills because everything for them is focused on the bottom line.

“So, if anything, I think the Ineos and Ratcliffe philosophy is wholly inappropriate to develop a football club, especially one which is, you know, so close to the hearts of so many fans globally.”