Manchester United poach Manchester City exec Omar Berrada as Brailsford exits cycling

CHANGES: INEOS Sport CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe speaks to the media during a press conference. Photo credit:: Simon Peach/PA Wire.

Manchester United are set to appoint Omar Berrada from Manchester City as their new chief executive.

The Athletic have reported that United have been looking for a CEO to succeed Richard Arnold, who left Old Trafford ahead of INEOS agreeing to buy a 25 per cent stake in the club.

That search has led them to move for Berrada, one of the key men behind the recent on and off-field success enjoyed by local rivals City.

Meanwhile Sir Dave Brailsford, the mastermind behind Team Sky and its Ineos-Grenadiers successor, has stepped away from cycling to focus on his new role at United.

As the chief sporting adviser to the Ineos chairman, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Brailsford is to concentrate on an audit into the club Ratcliffe paid £1.25bn to buy a quarter share of and take control of sporting affairs.

Brailsford, after his success as performance director of British Cycling, founded Team Sky in 2010, winning its first Tour de France in 2012, Bradley Wiggins taking the first of seven of eight editions until 2019 by four riders, Chris Froome collecting four. The team collected five further Grand Tours under the Sky and Ineos banner that followed a rebrand in 2019.

The Derbyshire-born but Welsh-bred Brailsford has been team principal throughout that time, only for his name to be removed from their website on Friday. A team spokesman did not confirm his departure. He will remain involved but that change of status “reflects Sir Dave’s position as director of Ineos Sport”.

Before Ratcliffe’s move for a stake in United, Brailsford was working with Nice, second in France’s Ligue 1 table. Ineos also own the Swiss club Lausanne, Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team and has a share in the Mercedes F1 team.

Since Ratcliffe’s deal with the Glazer family was confirmed on Christmas Eve, Brailsford has been a regular visitor to the Old Trafford director’s box, and was sitting with Sir Alex Ferguson and Ratcliffe during last week’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham.

During a brief introduction to the press, Ratcliffe expected his deal for United to be completed by “early Feb” and said: “I have done a few exciting things, but this caps it all. There’s no question about that.” Brailsford, an often controversial figure during his time on the frontline of road cycling and notorious for his belief in “marginal gains”, has been detailed with overhauling the distressed asset Ratcliffe has bought into.

United’s latest quarterly figures, released this week, showed the Glazers’s debt has increased to £773m and that an additional £364m is owed in unpaid transfer fee instalments.

While Brailsford conducts his audit, Ratcliffe is understood to be willing to be patient with the United manager, Erik ten Hag, though the delay of his buy-in after 13 months of negotiation with the Glazers means there is unlikely to be investment during the January transfer window.

Guardian