One of Britain’s richest men, Jim Ratcliffe, has formally entered the race to buy Manchester United.

The EPL club was put up for sale by its American owners – The Glazer family – in November last year.

“We have formally put ourselves into the process,” a statement released by the billionaire to The Times confirmed on Tuesday.

Ratcliffe, 70, is the CEO of pharmaceutical company INEOS and was previously linked with taking over Chelsea before US businessman Todd Boehly bought the club.

The billionaire owns Ligue 1 side Nice and his company sponsors the Mercedes AMG Formula One team

Meanwhile, United were most recently valued at £3.75bn but would expect to fetch far more given that a consortium led by Boehly paid £4.25bn for Chelsea in May last year.

The Old Trafford side has not won the Premier League title since 2013, and has sacked a succession of managers in the aftermath of the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.