I Got Ninety-Nine Questions, But The Pitch Ain’t One

Jim ‘The Rat’ Ratcliffe’s recent series of staged interviews - “Clearly a PR exercise” according to The Times' Matt Lawton, one of the handpicked stenographers - raised far more questions than answers

Back in 2004 when Alex Ferguson was trying to shake down the Coolmore Mafia to take ownership of Rock Of Gibraltar, the Irish quickly issued a series of ninety-nine questions to United’s Board, focused on his transfer dealings and the resulting beneficiaries. It caused Ferguson to back down and desperately sue for peace, rather than stud rights.

In 2025, the Ineos ‘mafia’ are the powerbrokers at Old Trafford, along with a whole new sty-worth of snouts in the trough. I looked in depth at the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force in The Rat’s Nest, before disassembling the lies Jim Ratcliffe spewed in last week’s interviews in The Lying Rat. Now I issue a list of 99 questions which those ‘journalists’ (and Gary Neville) should have been asking; questions which it is surely in all United fans’ interests for Ratcliffe to answer lest, unchallenged, he pied pipers Manchester United into a future that could conceivably generate billions in profit for himself and the Glazers, yet leave United without a stadium of their own.

These questions have been sent to Manchester United’s head of communications Andrew Ward with an invitation for Ratcliffe to respond. I will update here as and when(!) he does so. I fancy it might well be some time…

1) How much is Seb Coe being paid for chairing the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force? It’s certainly enough to have got him very enthused about it, unlike when he was rubbishing Manchester’s regeneration and dumping on the city’s Olympics bid back in the 1990s.

2) Has Gary Neville been paid for his involvement?

3) How much of “fans’ money” as you refer to it, was Neville paid for promoting United in India last autumn?

4) Why was Neville recruited for ambassadorial work when Alex Ferguson is being paid up to £2.1 million per annum for such a role until May?

5) Why did you claim that the club would have gone “bust” by Christmas?

6) Why was this ‘fact’ not revealed in the club’s SEC filing in September?

7) Why was this ‘fact’ contradicted by the club’s Going Concern statement lodged on 20^th February, that stated “Management has concluded that the Group is able to meet its obligations when they fall due for a period of at least 12 months after the date of this report.”

8) Given this, why did you claim hundreds more redundancies to low paid staff were so drastically required?

9) Why did you spend over £1 billion investing in Manchester United whilst not having a true grasp of the “forest of numbers” (your words) that supposedly masked the terrible state of the club’s finances?

10) Did your accountants and lawyers not flag up this apparent opaque state of the club’s finances?

11) If not, have you since sacked them?

12) If they did flag it, will you be taking legal action against the Glazers and/or Raine for apparently not providing full disclosure on the state of United’s finances?

13) You claim the finances weren’t “crystal clear” despite having to inject $300 million as a condition of your buy-in. Are you seriously suggesting you committed that amount of money into what was possibly a black hole?

14) Why did you say “I’m not sure [Sheikh Jassim] even exists!”?

15) If you had doubts he exists, why did you commit to paying $33 per share for your investment in United, when the publicly listed price was below $20 and his non-existence would mean there was no other competition to your offer?

16) Given the lengthy due diligence undertaken, the Glazers’ need for a cash injection should have been obvious: As the only party to produce proof of funds, why did you agree to pay such a hefty premium for a minority share of the club?

17) How much has Norman Foster been paid for his stadium design?

18) Why was an open tender not held for the refurb/design process?

19) Who undertook the costing analysis for a refurbishment and/or expansion of Old Trafford?

20) On what basis was that option regarded as unviable in comparison to building a wholly new stadium? It’s notable that you have pushed the argument for a new stadium from the very beginning.

21) Why is “the only basis” on which United can build a new stadium one that involves huge government support?

22) Why do you and other members of the Regeneration Task Force keep saying that no public money will underpin the construction of a new stadium, when Andy Burnham has admitted at least £200-300 million is required to buy the necessary land?

23) Why should public finances be used at that scale to provide land to an entity owned by foreign, and tax-exile, oligarchs?

24) You spoke last year about preferring to walk to the right conclusion rather than run to the wrong one. Last week you said the government “want to get going quite quickly because they want to see progress in this term.” What is the sudden big rush to take such a monumental decision about the club’s future? Especially as no designs, planning or finance are even in place, whilst no independent viability or impact studies have been carried out.

25) Spurs’ similar development of a new stadium that overlapped the footprint of White Hart Lane meant they had to play at Wembley for two years. What guarantee can you give that United will not have to move out of Old Trafford for a season or more?

26) If United do have to temporarily move, will you guarantee that the team will not relocate to Wembley?

27) You justified withdrawing lunches provided to club staff by saying “I’ve never had a free lunch.” What do you call the £600+ million UK taxpayer subsidy you received for building a plant in Antwerp?

28) What do you call the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer-funded grants that Ineos’s Olefins has received?

29) You preach sound financial husbandry. Why did you give Erik Ten Hag a contract extension last summer, when he still had a year to run, after touting his job round Europe for weeks?

30) Why were you unable to persuade any of the managerial candidates you spoke to last summer to take the job then?

31) Why was Ruben Amorim not approached to become United manager when you were interviewing candidates last summer?

32) Why did you authorise almost £200 million of transfer spending last summer whilst also claiming, “It was too early for us to make a big decision”?

33) Why did you authorise almost £200 million of transfer spending last summer when the club was so close to breaching PSR?

34) In 2022 you submitted a bid to buy Chelsea beyond the clearly stated deadline. Did you expect to be taken seriously?

35) In an interview with the BBC, you justified this failure to meet the deadline on the basis that it was “a big decision.” Why is it that you were happy to risk public humiliation through that cautious indecision when failing a deadline in 2022, yet needlessly rushed into decisions on Ten Hag’s contract and player signings in 2024?

36) The Times’s Matt Lawton described your series of interviews last week as “Clearly, it’s a PR exercise.” Why did you need to undertake a PR exercise with a few hand-picked journalists the day before making an appeal for public cash with the new stadium announcement?

37) You claimed that United “even had a body language consultant on £175,000 a year.” Why are queries to the club’s press department unable to corroborate this claim?

38) Who is this “body language consultant” and how long was he employed by the club?

39) Do you think it was ethical to invite Neville to interview you without either party declaring he has recently been employed by you as a United ambassador?

40) Why did you ask Neville if he’d seen the plans for the new stadium when, the following morning, it turned out he was the person who’d recorded the narration of the promotional video for the new stadium?

41) Why did you ask Neville if he’d seen the plans for the new stadium when he sits on the Regeneration Task Force with you?

42) Will Gary Neville’s property development company be in line for any contracts linked to the Old Trafford regeneration?

43) Who will profit from the proposed seventeen thousand homes earmarked for construction on the site of Old Trafford, that will generate sales projected at a minimum £5 billion?

44) Will proceeds from the housing development be used to pay the cost of a new stadium and/or pay down the Glazer debt?

45) Why do you continually make financially sensitive comments about United in public when you are neither a director nor executive officer of the club?

46) Do you think your claims that the club would go “bust” should have brought censure from the SEC?

47) You said “I don’t think the solution to the [debt] problem at Manchester United is throwing money at it.” How else will the Glazer-imposed debt be reduced?

48) Neville said to you, “You’re the type of guy who I think will pay for your mistakes.” Why are you reneging on a £7.5 million deal with New Zealand rugby?

49) Does your refusal to meet contractual obligations with New Zealand rugby indicate that you are a man whose word cannot be trusted?

50) If you insist you can actually be trusted, how does that square with the refusal to pay New Zealand rugby?

51) Who do you support when United play Chelsea?

52) You have said, “When I was in London for many, many years, Chelsea I could go and watch - it was quite difficult to go and watch United.” How was it difficult for a billionaire to travel to Manchester?

53) How is it no longer difficult to travel to Manchester, given you now live in Monaco?

54) How is it no longer difficult to travel to Manchester, given you’re a tax exile with a legal cap on the number of days you can spend in the UK each year?

55) As a Chelsea fan who has “a split allegiance,” do you find it amusing to lecture United fans on what a “faithful supporter” is?

56) You described “faithful supporters” as “the supporters who’ve got a season ticket and go to the top 6 games but also goes to see the other games as well. He doesn’t just pick the top 3 games.” Are you a faithful supporter?

57) If you are a faithful supporter, how does that square with you attending the Arsenal game, but not attending the Fulham game a few days earlier?

58) Where was your seat in the Nou Camp in 1999?

59) You continually claim to have supported United as a young boy. Given Denis Law was European Footballer of the Year and United’s only true superstar in 1964 when you were 12 years old, were you not a fan of his?

60) Why did you not represent the club at his recent funeral?

61) You told Neville that you’ve instructed your executive team to look after “faithful supporters” but said of the mid-season decision to increase ticket prices to £66 that “it wasn’t my decision, I didn’t know much about it.” Are fans expected to believe you had no input into a decision to ramp up ticket prices by – in some cases – 100% mid-season?

62) Why did you say this decision has “been reversed” when this isn’t true?

63) Why did you say this decision to charge £66 only applies to 500 tickets when this isn’t true?

64) Why did you say this decision to charge £66 only relates to “discounted” tickets when this isn’t true?

65) If you genuinely can not be expected to be “across the detail” of a decision to double prices to your core customers, how is it that last April you were “across the detail” enough to email all staff about an IT room and the U18s changing room being “untidy”?

66) How do you find the time to be abreast of such minor issues at United, whilst also running a multinational conglomerate like Ineos?

67) Is your apparent divided attention responsible for the issues which led to the downgrading of Ineos’s credit rating in January?

68) Is Ineos/Ineos Sport charging Manchester United any fee for its role in running the club?

69) At what point was the Ineos role at United expanded from simply overseeing football matters?

70) Was this agreement subject to any written contract and/or obligations?

71) If so, under what circumstances can the Glazer family, as the club’s majority owners, remove Ineos’s control?

72) In interviews with Neville and Martin Samuel you cited the club’s wage bill: “The biggest correlation is between success and money.” Given this correlation, and your clear intent to reduce the wage bill, aren’t you implicitly accepting that United will not be able to compete with the top payers on your watch?

73) Do you agree with the private assessment of one senior Ineos official that United’s financial situation is such that the club won’t be able to make any significant signings for at least the next two years?

74) Given your insistence that the club would have gone bust by Christmas but for staff cuts this year, what contingency plan do you have should the team not win the Europa League, thereby losing further millions from European income next season?

75) What plan is there to meet the increased interest payments on the Glazer debt, following the refinancing of borrowings that is due in 2027?

76) How will what’s currently a loss-making club afford the additional interest of around £140 million per year that would come with borrowings required to finance a £2 billion new stadium?

77) Even allowing for 33% extra revenue from a new stadium’s increase capacity, and allocating it all as pure profit, huge price increases of over £30 per person per match would be required to cover just the interest from the level of borrowing required to build it. What guarantee can supporters be given that such huge price increases won’t be imposed?

78) You said in December that “I don't think it makes sense for a Manchester United ticket to cost less than a ticket to see Fulham” yet now you claim “The ticket pricing has to be fair and it has to be affordable to the local people.” Which version represents your true feelings?

79) Both you and other leading United officials say no financing is yet lined up for the new stadium. How did you ensure the government publicly pledged its backing to a development project which doesn’t have any funding in principle, let alone guaranteed?

80) Omar Berrada has insisted all options are on the table with regard to a new stadium’s funding. Can you provide definitive assurances that there will be no sale-and-leaseback, leaving United paying rent to play in ‘New Trafford’?

81) Why did you tell Martin Samuel “They can’t really come to a match, the Glazers. They’ve retreated into the shadows a bit now, so I’m getting all the bloody stick. We bought in and I haven’t seen them since,” when this wasn’t true?

82) Are we to believe you’d forgotten the fact that a Glazer was with you in the Directors Box just the previous week for the Arsenal game?

83) Did you forget that Avi Glazer was photographed with you at Wembley on two occasions last season?

84) Did you not remember Joel Glazer being with you at Old Trafford in October?

85) Why was it necessary to spend £50 million on refurbishing United’s Carrington base just twelve months after a prior £20 million upgrade had been completed?

86) If you’re such a big United fan, why, when Martin Samuel asked why you bought into United, did you say “I can’t honestly answer why we did it. It’s quite a difficult question”?

87) If you’re such a big United fan and – as you told Gary Neville – you might not be alive in ten years, why don’t you pledge the £2 billion required for a new stadium out of your own unspendable wealth?

88) You referred to the Glazers’ management teams “making a lot of very poor decisions […] stupid things. They made a complete cock-up of it, shocking really.” In light of the Ten Hag contract and Dan Ashworth recruitment decisions, what’s changed?

89) You also told The Times, “I wouldn’t have tolerated Ed Woodward, or Richard Arnold. Richard was a rugby man, he didn’t even understand football.” How does this square with Dave Brailsford’s influence at United, given his own admission that “in football, I'm watching in black and white”?

90) How are you able to stand by Dave Brailsford given former shadow sports minister Clive Efford’s call for him to be investigated for his involvement in the Richard Freeman doping scandal?

91) As Efford stated in 2021: “Dave Brailsford gave reassurances about how clean his teams were and unless he was in full control of what was going on, he couldn’t make those assurances. We have to question, if he didn’t know, why didn’t he? And if it was possible for this to happen, how could he have given assurances that his team was clean?” Is Brailsford a liar or incompetent?

92) Again in Martin Samuel’s Times piece, you were quoted saying, “The best season that Nice has had is this one where we’ve not been allowed to get involved because of multi-club ownership rules. They’ve been so much better without our interference! Maybe there’s a lesson there as well, you know.” Do you not think this is something you should find out? Urgently.

93) Your track record in sport is not really very good, is it?

94) How do you square lecturing people about sustainability and salmon stocks in Iceland whilst running petrochemical and fracking businesses, owning a super yacht, investing in a Formula One team and flying to Australia to attend a Grand Prix?

95) In 2014, iGas drilling company was implicated in colluding with Peel Holdings and Greater Manchester Police against the public protesting its fracking operation. That company is now called Star Energy and, along with Ineos, holds fracking rights in Greater Manchester, including under Carrington. Do you condemn companies cultivating inappropriate relationships with public officials in order to promote business interests even if they align with your own?

96) You recently stated that if fans’ abuse of you “reached the extent that the Glazer family have been abused, then I’d have to say, look, enough’s enough guys, let somebody else do this.” Was this an attempt to try and head off any opposition to your plans for a new stadium?

97) You have just announced more ticket price increases – now fifteen percent in just two years – for a team in thirteenth place in the league, whilst many other clubs freeze prices. The extra return this will generate amounts to under £7 million, or less than half the amount you wasted on Ten Hag’s contract extension and Dan Ashworth’s recruitment. Do you think this represents value for money?

98) How much did it cost to commission Oxford Economics to report on the ‘forecasted’ benefits of a new stadium?

99) “If you look at Oxford Economics they estimate £7 billion per annum,” you have said, with regard to the claimed Gross Added Value of United building a new stadium. Based on Oxford Economics’ generous projection of 4 million annual visitors, this means you are claiming the new stadium will generate wider economic revenues of £1750 per person per visit. Is this seriously the economic case on which you’re basing this development?