Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s sports investments outside Manchester United are facing mounting difficulties, with Ligue 1 club Nice and Swiss side Lausanne Sports both available for sale, the Netcompany-INEOS Grenadiers cycling team struggling to match its former dominance and INEOS withdrawing from preparations for the next America’s Cup.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, in which INEOS owns a one-third stake, is one of the few clear successes in the group’s sporting portfolio, according to an analysis published by The Telegraph on 11 November.
When Ratcliffe and INEOS entered sport, their approach was compared with Red Bull, whose interests span Formula 1, football and skydiving with varying degrees of success. After nine years in sport, however, the closest similarity may be that neither organisation is universally popular.
INEOS initially wanted teams in different sports to share expertise. But since its first football acquisition in 2017, the group’s results have been limited. That outcome is familiar when wealthy business figures move into sport, where financial and commercial expertise does not always translate into success on the pitch or course.
Ratcliffe recalled in his book Grit, Rigour & Humour: The INEOS Story seeing a sign at a remote helicopter refuelling station in Australia which read: “Don’t do anything stupid.” The message later became part of the INEOS Compass, designed to express the company’s culture.
“At the heart of the Compass are three words that I believe best represent our approach and way of doing things: Grit, Rigour, Humour. This applies equally to our sports projects,” he wrote.
Nice and Lausanne face uncertain futures
Nice were seventh in Ligue 1 when INEOS took control in 2019 and are sixth now. Ratcliffe said the club would not “throw money away blindly” and wanted to build a side capable of regularly playing in Europe and sustaining that level.
Nice finished between fifth and ninth in each of the following four seasons, including fourth in 2024-25. They were knocked out in the Europa League group stage three times and reached the Europa Conference League quarter-finals in 2023. However, they ended last season 16th in Ligue 1 and narrowly avoided relegation.
Supporters had expected Nice to challenge Paris Saint-Germain, but that did not happen. Ratcliffe said last year: “I don’t really like watching Nice play. There are some good players in the team, but the level of play isn’t high enough to excite me.” That season, Nice recorded home victories by 8-0 and 6-0.
The club has stabilised under Olivier Pantaloni this season but remains on the market after the asking price was reduced. A proposed takeover by American investors fell through this summer.
Lausanne Sports were sixth in the Swiss Super League when INEOS bought them in 2017 and are now 12th and bottom. The club, based in the city where INEOS has its global headquarters, had won the Swiss top flight seven times, most recently in 1965, but had since moved repeatedly between the two divisions.
Former INEOS Football chief executive David Thompson said the aim was to qualify for Europe within four years. Lausanne reached the Europa Conference League qualifying stage twice but did not make the main draw. They finished third in the 2025-26 Swiss Super League, but also suffered relegation in 2021-22 their second under INEOS before returning the following year. They are now also for sale.
Cycling and sailing projects decline
Team Sky was a leading force in road cycling when INEOS took over. Between 2012 and 2019, four riders won seven Tour de France titles, with Egan Bernal claiming the latest victory a few months after the acquisition. The renamed Netcompany-INEOS Grenadiers are eighth in this year’s UCI team rankings, despite significant investment.
Sir Dave Brailsford returned to the team after ending his Manchester United role in May and is working alongside Geraint Thomas, who is transitioning into a racing director position. Thomas said the team had to “start from 20% of its past level” and described the 2026 Tour de France as “probably the worst Tour de France we’ve ever participated in.”
The team once cost INEOS about £50 million per season. New sponsors have since joined, but Ratcliffe’s ambition of another Tour de France victory remains distant.
In sailing, Ratcliffe joined Sir Ben Ainslie in 2018 after Britain’s 2017 America’s Cup defeat. INEOS reportedly invested £200 million in INEOS Britannia, which lost 7-1 to Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the 2021 Challenger Selection Series final.
The team then won the Louis Vuitton Cup and reached the America’s Cup final three years later, only to lose 2-7 to New Zealand. A dispute over ownership of the boat subsequently damaged the relationship between Ratcliffe and Ainslie. INEOS has withdrawn from preparations for next year’s event, while legal proceedings over the yacht continue.
Tom Cary wrote earlier this year: “Even if Sir Jim does get the 75-foot foiling monohull back, it’s hard to say what he’d do with it.”
In June, Ainslie said he had been told that, unless he handed over the team’s assets and intellectual property, Ratcliffe would “burn your house down.”
Mercedes remains a success
INEOS invested in Mercedes when the team held both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. It currently holds both titles and won its first constructors’ championship since 2021 at this season’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
The team is profitable, its valuation is increasing and its performance has returned to the level seen when INEOS invested. Mercedes-Benz and Toto Wolff are the other shareholders, with each holding one-third.
Wolff runs the team and called Ratcliffe “a great sponsor” last year. Ratcliffe is rarely involved in its daily operations.
