“It’s a s*** show,” says Jean-Philippe Audoly, host of the Avanti Nissa fan podcast.
“For five years of Ratcliffe owning my club, it’s always bad, disrespectful comments like that, it’s never something positive or exciting when it’s about Nice. After five years, just shut the f*** up. If you don’t care about our club, fine, just put some money in or just sell the club. But stop it now. We don’t need you.”
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That is one reaction — admittedly, the most extreme — The Athletic heard when visiting Nice last weekend to find out what people thought of the comments made by the INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe owns the French team and a 28.94 per cent stake in Manchester United.
“I don’t particularly enjoy going to watch Nice because there are some good players, but the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited,” Ratcliffe told The Times in March.
“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.”
At the time, Nice head coach Franck Haise responded by pointing out that Ratcliffe hadn’t seen any matches this year and suggested the British billionaire was talking about previous seasons. “We’re here to work to get results so that in the future, we can be even better,” Haise said. “It’s no big deal.”
Inside the Allianz Riviera stadium, Nice’s ground, a single ring of the word “INEOS” can be seen around the top tier. The tier below has the words “INEOS Grenadier: Built for more” dotted among other sponsors such as Ville de Nice, JDSports.com, Le Coq Sportif and Allianz Assurance. The gold letters of INEOS are emblazoned on the front of the team’s red and black home strip.
At the training ground there is an INEOS grenadiers cycling team bicycle, a formula 1 Mercedes car sits underneath the stairs while a wall of photos shows INEOS’ other sporting ventures, including a photo with Ratcliffe and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
The F1 Mercedes car at Nice’s training ground (OGC Nice)
Despite this visual presence, INEOS’ physical presence has not been permitted this season. When United and Nice qualified to play in this year’s Europa League, UEFA rules required a temporary arrangement which saw a “blind trust” operating Nice. This prevented INEOS from having any “control or decisive influence”, according to UEFA’s statement, over the club.
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Having said that, even when Ratcliffe could attend games during previous seasons, he only made the 20km (12.4-mile) trip from his Monaco home up the Mediterranean coastline two or three times. A club source, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, says that it did not raise any issues, but it did not go unnoticed by the fans.
So, how were those comments received? Are Nice, who sit fifth in Ligue 1, enjoyable to watch? Is the level of football high enough to get excited? And how has INEOS’ absence affected the club?
The Athletic went to the Cote d’Azur and spoke to fans, journalists and those in the club to find out.
As perhaps expected, Ratcliffe’s comments did not go down well with Nice fans.
One local French journalist, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect relations, describes the words as “horrible” and “disrespectful”.
“If you buy Nice, you have to respect Nice,” they tell The Athletic. Romain Genevois, former Nice defender and Haiti international, thought his words were “harsh” and could have been left unsaid.
“If he had some criticism for his club and the players who make up this team, he could have said it directly to them,” Genevois says. “As players, we usually prefer that.”
Corentin Bourseaud, 17, a Paris Saint-Germain fan but lover of all things football, believes they are an “emblematic” French club.
“When you’re the club owner, you don’t have to say things like that,” he says. “You can keep those thoughts to yourself and encourage the team.”
Frederic Alunno, 52 and a Nice fan for 35 years, found Ratcliffe’s comments “absurd” and says it was “stupid” to say that. He pointed out that Nice are far higher up their domestic table than United, the caveat being, of course, that the standard in the Premier League is higher than Ligue 1.
Frederic Alunno, left, and his daughter, Chiara (Charlotte Harpur/The Athletic)
The club did not make any statement, and according to a club source, there were worse things to worry about, such as the Ligue 1 TV rights debacle. They are grateful for the support and investment and understand that attention would be on Manchester United, given the size of the club.
Nice’s 2-1 win against 15th-placed Angers on Sunday was not exactly a scintillating performance. They were hardly playing a heavyweight side, but The Athletic has seen worse at Old Trafford this season.
Pablo Rosario’s 36th-minute header finished off a simple but effective move from Badredine Bouanani’s whipped cross. Ali Al-Abdi doubled their lead at the start of the second half with a freak goal. His header hit the post and rebounded straight onto his forehead and in.
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Nice defender Youssouf Ndayishimiye added to the excitement when he played a square ball across the face of goal, conceding possession. Angers’ Yassin Belkhdim took the chance to get the visitors back into the game.
“We’re playing well,” said Haise when asked if his team’s performances this year showed they are exciting to watch, in contrast to what Ratcliffe said. “We’re scoring goals, creating chances. Sometimes we even make mistakes that revitalise our opponents… for the suspense,” he smiled.
“There’s every reason to come to watch Nice. The owner didn’t do it because he’s not allowed to. I invite people to come and see the matches. There’s a great show. It’s not always perfect, but it’s a good show.”
Goalscorer Rosario added that, since his arrival four years ago, there has been no shortage of enthusiasm. “Our group is always committed and passionate; we always give our all,” he said after the game.
Looking at Nice’s playing style, they are solid at generating chances and getting forward with numbers — only PSG and Monaco have generated more non-penalty expected goals (xG) than them this season, but they have not been hugely clinical in front of goal.
They like to build up from the back (see their deep build-up and circulate score above), but they are not very efficient at moving the ball through the thirds, as shown by their low press resistance score.
Many fans acknowledge that Ligue 1 is not as high-quality as the Premier League, but note Ratcliffe knew that before buying the club.
Nice sit 63rd in the ELO rankings — a measure of team strength that allocates points for every result, weighted by the quality of opposition faced — ahead of Galatasaray and level with Freiburg. For context, United are 28th and Ipswich and Leicester are the only two Premier League teams below Nice in 104th and 105th place, respectively.
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Despite sitting fifth in Ligue 1, Nice had a disastrous Europa League campaign and finished 35th out of 36th, failing to win a single game.
The ELO graph shows that INEOS came in with the club’s rating trending downwards, but it is now on an upward trajectory.
Given INEOS is not allowed any involvement with the club this season, it would appear more logical that Ratcliffe was referring to Nice from previous years. Indeed, Ratcliffe said Nice are having their “best season”. Still, the timing of his comments in mid-March, when Nice were fourth, just outside the Champions League qualification spots on goal difference, irritated fans.
“For the first time, they look like a team,” says Audoly. “If he had to complain about the quality of football we are playing, it’s definitely not the year to do so.”
“The style of football has been really quite exciting, so not a reflection at all of Ratcliffe’s summary,” says freelance journalist Luke Entwistle, who follows the French league closely.
Under Haise, many agree that the football is more attractive to watch, especially compared to the defensive setup under former manager Francesco Farioli. Farioli left to join Ajax after just one season in charge. So if Ratcliffe was referring to last year under Farioli, there is more rationale to his argument.
Under the Italian, Nice ground out seven 1-0 league wins, secured 17 clean sheets and fulfilled the aim of getting the team back into Europe by finishing fifth. The playing style was, in Entwistle’s words, “dour”, “dull”, and “defensive”.
The years before Farioli, under Lucien Favre and caretaker Didier Digard, were not much better either. Many people who The Athletic talked to spoke of a lingering lack of “engouement” — passion — from the fanbase. Indeed, the 36,178-capacity stadium is rarely full.
Although PSG have already won the league title this season, there is plenty still to play for in the closing stages of Ligue 1, with just four points between Marseille in second and Strasbourg in seventh place as teams vie for qualification to European competitions.
When INEOS bought the club in 2019, they came in with the bold goal of challenging PSG. INEOS got fans onside with such a great ambition, but that aim was readjusted last summer with the focus set on qualifying for Europe.
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The overall feeling among fans is that Nice are an afterthought. But given United’s status as a global club, that is the reality of a multi-club model. Ratcliffe’s comments last month reaffirmed that.
Ratcliffe said himself that Nice have performed better without their “interference”. Jean Claude-Blanc, who stepped down from his position as a United director earlier this month and has taken on a new role as chief of international football relations and special adviser to United’s board, was the key liaison between INEOS and Nice. INEOS were not involved in last summer’s transfer market, and according to a club source, there is stability and structure with the trio of president Jean-Pierre Rivere, CEO Fabrice Bocquet and sporting director Florian Maurice at the helm.
When asked if INEOS’ absence had affected the team at all, Haise, fully aware that INEOS would not be around this season, said: “I work with my players, the management; I work on what depends on me. It hasn’t affected me, if you want the answer.”
It was business as usual, according to the club source. Only the smallest of details in the day-to-day running of the club, such as the communications team no longer sending a daily press review to INEOS’ communications team, were tweaked.
It is very unlikely both clubs will play in the same European competition next year, which means INEOS’ “control and decisive influence” over Nice is set to return. The only crossover would be the Champions League. For that to happen, United would have to win the Europa League and Nice would have to finish third in Ligue 1, but they are three points adrift. That suggests INEOS will no longer be under UEFA’s restrictions, but it begs the question of whether INEOS want to keep Nice on its books.
For all of the negativity surrounding INEOS, they have made a significant investment. Accounts show that they have put in €216million ($245m) in shares, which does not include other loans they may have made, during a turbulent time in Ligue 1. The club source quoted a figure of around €400million ($454.6m) over five years.
“Ratcliffe always put money in when there was a need to bail out the coffers, to give money to the club when it was in deficit,” says another French journalist, speaking on anonymity to protect relationships. “Let’s not forget that during the Covid crisis, during the TV rights crisis, Nice would have been in serious financial difficulty.”
A club source pointed to the fact that since INEOS’ arrival, Nice have consistently aimed to compete in Europe, INEOS has restructured the club and heavily invested in signings but, one would argue, with very mixed success.
Alunno, the fan, is wary of a new owner coming in and would prefer to stick with INEOS.
“He brought something extra,” he says. “The club has developed. There’s too much at stake elsewhere now with Manchester for them to devote themselves to Nice. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the club. The development of the club has been going in the right direction since INEOS arrived. We’ve gone one step further. Perhaps we could go one step further if investment was a little more controlled.”
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Inside the club, there is a feeling that they do not want INEOS to leave, given their vital investment. Other fans hope INEOS will sell up. “We need someone to buy Nice for the club itself and not to think about United first,” says another French journalist, also kept anonymous to protect relationships.
“The only thing we can hope for is the day they will sell the club,” says Audoly. “And not to some shady owner that could ruin our club for good. That’s the last expectation we have for INEOS: Don’t f*** up your exit.”
(Top photos: Getty Images)
