Sir Jim Ratcliffe has suggested that Manchester United will have to wait until at least 2030 before moving into their new ‘iconic’ stadium.
Ratcliffe, who owns a 28.94 percent stake in the club, took part in a series of interviews on Monday in which he issued an update on plans to move out of Old Trafford. United have played their home matches at the stadium since 1910 but ever since becoming co-owner, Ratcliffe has had his sights on building a ‘Wembley of the North’.

The Manchester-born billionaire believes that United will have the ‘world’s most iconic stadium’ which will serve as the ‘nucleus’ of a government-funded regeneration project in the south of the city. Multiple reports say that United will make an announcement confirming their decision to build a new 100,000-seater stadium as opposed to renovating Old Trafford will be made on Tuesday.

As for when the Red Devils will be ready to make the move, Ratcliffe revealed to ex-United captain Gary Neville for The Overlap: “I won’t say much more but Norman Foster, who also is a Mancunian and is the world’s greatest architect in my view, has really created the most iconic – well you’ve seen it (the design) – absolutely incredible.

“It would be marvellous if Manchester United could go down that road in five years’ time or six years’ time and have that stadium.”
The founder of petrochemicals company INEOS also said: “It’s definitely deliverable but I think it needs to be set in context again. “And at the moment, if you look at the Premier League, we’ve got some great stadiums but we don’t have a Bernabeu and we don’t have a Nou Camp, we don’t have that in the Premier League, although it’s the greatest league in the world.

“And also, if you look at the north of England, the north of England has won 10 Champions League finals and London has won two. So there’s quite a few reasons there to have the world’s most iconic football stadium in the north of England and at the world’s greatest club.

“It’s the greatest football club in the world. Then if it’s going to build a new stadium it should be a new stadium that’s befitting the greatest club in the world and also a stadium that befits the greatest league in the world. Because the Premier League is the greatest league in the world.”

Amid concerns over United’s financial capacity to build the stadium, Ratcliffe told the Times: “I think it is financeable. But key to it is being part of the government regeneration project for southern Manchester which, you know. Rachel Reeves has talked about as one of those three major planks of their growth strategy.