Ineos puts Lausanne-Sport up for sale and hires Alvarez & Marsal to find a buyer

The sale decision

Ineos, the British chemicals group led by Jim Ratcliffe, has decided to sell Lausanne-Sport, the Swiss Super League club it acquired in November 2017, according to The Athletic, whose report was published on Monday, 26 October. The group has handed the job of finding a buyer to the consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. Ineos declined to comment when The Athletic approached it. The sale is part of a plan to shrink the group's sports portfolio, which includes OGC Nice, the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team and a stake in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team. Ratcliffe's group also wants to concentrate resources on Manchester United, where Ineos holds just under 30 per cent and has taken control of football operations. The identity and ambitions of any future owner are not yet known.

What the sales pitch says

Alvarez & Marsal has sent a five-page document called "Project Striker" to potential investors, according to The Athletic, which says it has seen the paper. The document presents Lausanne-Sport as an established top-flight club in a 12-team league whose two historically dominant clubs, FC Basel and Young Boys, have recently struggled. It leans on the club's light infrastructure and on the chance of European qualification, which the club has achieved only once under Ineos. The prospectus says little about the past. It does not mention the team's seven Swiss league titles or its nine Swiss cup wins, and it leaves out the club's annual losses and its position at the bottom of the table. The club has played at the 12,500-seat Stade de la Tuilière since 2020 and does not own its stadium or training centre.

Results and finances

Lausanne sit last in the Super League with six points from 11 matches. Under Ineos the club was relegated in 2018 and 2022 and promoted in 2020 and 2023, so a relegation this season would be the third under the group. The Athletic estimates the club will post a loss of about 5.5 million Swiss francs this season. Its only European qualification under Ineos came in the Conference League last season, where it was eliminated in the play-offs. The club's finances could weaken further if Ineos sponsorship is not replaced quickly, according to 20 Minuten.

Manchester United and a wider retreat

The sale comes while Manchester United are struggling on the pitch. The Evening Standard reports an eight-match winless run that has left head coach Michael Carrick on the brink of the sack, and fans at Old Trafford chanted at Ineos to sell the club. Ratcliffe bought just under 30 per cent of United in 2023 from the Glazer family. Lausanne-Sport played United in a behind-closed-doors friendly during the September/October international break and lost 2-1. Lausanne is not the only club on the market. Ineos has put OGC Nice, bought in 2019, up for sale, and RTS reports that its most advanced talks with a US investor failed in June 2026. The New York Times reports that the asking price for Nice has been cut to €250 million. Ineos's sponsorship deals with the All Blacks and Tottenham Hotspur ended in 2025, and a split from America's Cup partner Sir Ben Ainslie added to the retreat. Several media reports, cited by Blick, put the group's total debt near 18 billion pounds.