Man Utd shares purchased by American billionaire investor - but full takeover is unlikely

Cooperman first purchased around a million shares in late 2023, just before Ratcliffe completed his own investment into the club to make him a co-owner. Now, according to The Independent, the founder of the US-based hedge fund Omega Advisors is thought to own 5.2% of United's Class A shares, which equates to a value of more than $50 million (£36.7m/€42m).

Despite this investment, it is not thought that Cooperman is planning to take a dominant stake in United, even though his net worth is over $3.6 billion (£2.67bn). The Class A shares do not match the voting powers of Class B shares, which carry 10 votes per share compared to just one for the former.

Overall, the Glazer family still hold a voting majority with around 67% of the club, while Ratcliffe owns about 28%. The Glazers remain in charge of the corporate and commercial sides of the club, while Ratcliffe and INEOS have control over football operations.

There has been plenty of change at Old Trafford in recent times, but large swathes of supporters remain unconvinced by the Glazers and protests against the family have taken place as recently as early February. The 1958 Group unveiled plans for a demonstration before the game against Fulham, saying the club had become a "laughing stock" and that Ratcliffe was "complicit" in the decline.

Ratcliffe has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons over the past week or so. The United co-owner provoked criticism when he said the United Kingdom had been "colonised by immigrants" and gave flagrantly wrong population statistics during an interview with Sky News.

He said: "You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK has been colonised. It's costing too much money.

"The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it's 70 million. That's 12 million people."

Ratcliffe later said sorry "that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe" and then doubled down on his previous remarks in the same statement.

The likes of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and anti-racism organisation Kick It Out were among the individuals and groups who called for Ratcliffe to apologise. Starmer himself said: "Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."

While Ratcliffe's comments have been a bit of a public relations nightmare for United, Michael Carrick's squad has at least delivered on the pitch since the former England midfielder replaced Ruben Amorim as manager until the end of the season. A run of four wins and a draw from their last five Premier League games has lifted them up to fourth in the table, with the Red Devils now in with a real chance of securing Champions League football for next season despite such an inconsistent start to the current campaign.

Their next assignment is a potentially tough one, however. United travel to Merseyside on Monday night to face Everton, who sit in eighth place ahead of the weekend. After that fixture, Carrick's side take on Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Bournemouth before the March international break.