New Zealand Rugby is taking legal action against Ineos, the co-owners of Manchester United, and have accused Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company of breaching their lucrative sponsorship deal.
In a statement released to Telegraph Sport, New Zealand Rugby said that Ineos, which agreed a six-year deal to become official performance partner to the All Blacks until 2027, failed to pay the first instalment of the 2025 sponsorship fee.
It said that this confirmed Ineos’s decision to exit the six-year agreement and that it now had no option but to launch legal proceedings. Ineos has not commented, but the page on its website about the partnership with New Zealand Rugby now simply says “page not found”.
It all raises fresh questions of the sport strategy at Ratcliffe’s Ineos after the shock America’s Cup divorce last month with Ben Ainslie, sweeping change at the top of the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, and dreadful recent football performances at Manchester United.
Ratcliffe further increased his stake in Manchester United in December to 28.94 per cent, injecting a further £79.3 million that was promised when he bought his initial 27.7 per cent minority stake a year earlier.
What was branded as a “unique new six-year partnership” with New Zealand Rugby – and which included all seven of its national teams – was announced in July 2021 and due to run across six years from 2022 until 2027. It was understood to be worth NZ$8 million (£3.65 million) a year to New Zealand Rugby, with Ineos promising to fuse expertise in Formula One, cycling, sailing and football as “part of a unique sport performance group”.
Following news of their split with Ratcliffe last month, Ainslie’s team said they were “astounded” by Ineos’s future plans for the America’s Cup and warned that it “raises significant legal and practical obstacles for them that will play out in the coming days and weeks”.
New Zealand Rugby is understood to have already begun legal proceedings against Ineos and intends to remove the logo from the national team kit for their next international matches.
A statement said: “New Zealand Rugby is disappointed that Ineos has breached its sponsorship agreement. Most recently, it failed to pay the first instalment of the 2025 sponsorship fee, confirming its decision to exit our six-year agreement.
“Having learned of Ineos’s decision to walk away three years early, we have moved to protect the interests of New Zealand Rugby and the wider game. We have been left with no option but to launch legal proceedings to protect our commercial position.
“NZR is actively pursuing new commercial opportunities and global interest in the All Blacks and other Teams in Black remains high. We are committed to being world class on and off the field and deliver unique value to sponsors through our iconic brands.”
New Zealand Rugby is confident that its renowned All Blacks brand remains one of the most appealing in world sport and, following considerable commercial success, says that it “looks forward to building on that with new partners and fulfilling our purpose of seeing rugby thrive”.
New Zealand Rugby has reported unprecedented growth in its digital reach over recent years, with the All Blacks YouTube channel attracting more than one million viewers. They have also reported major growth in community rugby during the past year, with the largest participatory numbers since before the Covid-19 lockdown. On the pitch, both the men’s All Blacks and women’s Black Ferns teams remain among the top three in the world.
That is rather more than can be said just now for Ineos’s most famous sporting asset, with Manchester United currently languishing 13th in the Premier League but still in the FA Cup following Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 fourth-round win against Leicester City.
Ineos has been approached for comment.
Analysis: Ratcliffe’s sporting Ineos empire
Football: A mountain still to climb
Old Trafford is head and shoulders the top priority. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s spend now totals £1.25 billion on his 28.94 per cent stake, but equally significantly, as far as other projects are concerned, is his decision to redirect expertise and key personnel who were once shared fairly evenly across his sporting empire.
With the team in 13th place in the Premier League, the project proves more daunting by the day. He promised last February a “journey to take Manchester United back to the top of English, European and world football, with world-class facilities for our fans”. “Work to achieve those objectives will accelerate from today,” he announced after initially completing a 27.7 per cent stake.
What has followed has been intense short-term pain for what he hopes will prove long-term gain, having personally signed off the decision to make 250 staff redundant at United last year. Sir Alex Ferguson, who had helped to advise Ratcliffe closely on his plans for the club, then stepped down from a £2.1 million ambassadorial role in October.
There have also been tensions around funding for United’s charitable arm being hit and £40,000-a-year funding for the Association of Former Manchester United Players. On the field, delight at an FA Cup final win over Manchester City papered over cracks. Erik ten Hag has since been sacked and, even after the arrival of Ruben Amorim, the team falter.
However, as Ratcliffe ponders an immense to-do list that includes a potential 100,000-seat stadium which could cost £2.3 billion, the main impact on his other projects have been some of his key lieutenants joining him in the day-to-day running of the club.
Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc both have executive powers across Ineos Sport, but United have dominated their workload over the past year. Inevitably, both have significantly less input at the two other football clubs in the Ineos stable – Lausanne, purchased in 2017, and OGC Nice, bought in 2019.
Sailing: Choppy waters
Ratcliffe had backed Ben Ainslie’s team for the past two America’s Cup cycles to the tune of roughly £200 million. And he said in an interview with this publication on the eve of the 37th America’s Cup last October – Britain’s first Cup match for 60 years – that he would “definitely go again”.
Last month, however, Telegraph Sport revealed how Ratcliffe and Ainslie will not be doing it together next time as they look set for a messy legal battle in a dispute over control of Britain’s team.
The relationship between the pair had been on the brink of collapse for weeks and it was the Ineos billionaire who moved first.
Ratcliffe issued a statement declaring the end of his relationship with Ainslie after they “could not find agreement on terms to move forward”, as well as his intention to enter a new challenge for the 38th America’s Cup under the team name Ineos Britannia, and still using the technical might of the Mercedes Formula One team, in which Ineos owns a third share.
In response, Ainslie said he was “astounded” by Ratcliffe’s move, suggesting there were a number of “significant legal and practical obstacles” which would prevent him from pushing ahead with his plans. It is expected that a row is now brewing as to whom the assets and intellectual property of the team belong to.
Cycling: Wheels falling off
Similar to sailing, in that Ineos is seeking to bring in outside sponsorship to help bear the load. It currently pumps in about £50 million per season. Ineos Grenadiers chief executive John Allert told media last week that Ineos “do not want to spend more money” but added that it was committed to cycling for at least the next (2026 to 2028 WorldTour) cycle. “They very clearly do want us to be a super team,” Allert said.
Ratcliffe and Ineos, who became sole owners of Tour Racing Ltd, which holds the team’s licence, in May 2019, are known to be desperate to win the Tour de France again. But the team appear to be some way off that, still in a transitional phase and restructuring following the departures of key figures such as Brailsford and Rod Ellingworth.
F1: A turbo-charged investment
This is one sport Ratcliffe is unlikely to be looking to divest himself of any time soon. Formula One is absolutely booming and Ineos’s one-third share of Mercedes F1, which it acquired in 2020, is likely to have risen sharply in value in the past four years. The F1 team were valued at $3.94 billion in November 2024, making it the second-most valuable F1 team, behind Ferrari, who were valued at $4.78 billion.
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Rugby Union: All Blacks training deal
Ineos signed a six-year sponsorship deal with the All Blacks in 2021 worth around NZ$48 million (£22 million), according to reports in New Zealand. Under the agreement, Ineos branding appears on the back of the playing shorts and on the front of the training jerseys for the All Blacks, Black Ferns, both national sevens teams, the Maori All Blacks, All Blacks XV, as well as the All Blacks Under-20 side. However, Telegraph Sport revealed that New Zealand Rubgy is starting legal proceedings against Ineos for breaching the sponsorship deal.
Running: Big plans for small outlay
Commitment remains to a long-term partnership with NN Running Team and its star draw, Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner of all time, who became the first human to run a sub-two hour marathon in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge. This partnership is one of Ineos’s newer ventures, struck in 2022, but the deal is thought to be worth a fraction of some of Ineos’s other ventures. In return for financial backing and sponsorship, NN have access to Ineos’s knowledge-sharing network across sports.
A version of this analysis was published last month
