Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Man United final absence exposed as manager makes investment plea
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed his minority investment in the club back in February 2024
Manchester United Women's manager Marc Skinner has insisted he does not expect an explanation as to why Sir Jim Ratcliffe was not at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup final against Chelsea this afternoon.
The Reds fell to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Women's Super League champions under the arch with Sandy Baltimore's brace and Catarina Macario's goal securing the victory for Chelsea. United went into the match as underdogs but the achievement of reaching the showpiece fixture was of great credit to Skinner and his team.
However, a notable absentee from proceedings was Ratcliffe. He was not present in the Wembley director's box despite even members of the Glazer family being in attendance.
Asked about that in his post-match press conference, Skinner explained: "In all honesty, I don’t know why he [Ratcliffe] wasn’t here. But I feel we were well represented.
"Omar [Berrada] was here, the Glazer family, Jason [Wilcox] is up there. Those are the people I deal with everyday.
"That’s the people I need to be here, because they need to be able to look at what we need to do to close a growing gap in finance that Chelsea have created. The reality is that it’s the investment in the team that needs to happen.
"It’s not whether you’re visible. I get you the representation, the visibility is how you see investment, but as long as I play the team are being invested in, that is also a way of showing your support for the team."
When asked if Ratcliffe would contact him about missing the match, Skinner replied: "I would never get that explanation, I’m here to work with the team but reality is I felt we were well supported from the club." The Ineos founder's absence comes in the same week that Chelsea Women gained a £20m investment from Reddit co-founder and Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian.
Both Ohanian and Williams attended the final at Wembley Stadium. Back in March, Ratcliffe was asked about his lack of support for the women's team and he suggested that the criticism he had received was unfair.
"What I said at the beginning was my main focus is on the men's team because that, at the end of the day, is what moves the needle at Manchester United," the billionaire explained. "The women's team is much smaller than the men's team.
"Of our £650m of income, £640m of that comes from the men's team and £10m comes from the women's team. With my business background you tend to focus on the bigger issues before you focus on the smaller issues.
"But the women's team wear the Manchester United brand, the Manchester United logo, so in that sense they are every bit as important as the men's team. And frankly, they are doing better than the men's team - they are second in the league and won the FA Cup last season.
"Marc Skinner is doing a great job as the coach and the new captain Maya [le Tissier] is doing a great job." Ratcliffe is expected to be in attendance on Wednesday night when United's men travel to Bilbao to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
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