On Tuesday it was revealed by New Zealand Rugby that they were to take legal action against Manchester United co-owners INEOS over an alleged breach of contract.

The All Blacks, as first reported by the Telegraph, are looking to sue Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company over what they describe as a breach of contract in relation to a sponsorship deal between New Zealand Rugby and INEOS that was struck in 2021 but that has now ended three years before the end of the agreed six-year deal.

The All Blacks claim that INEOS failed to pay the first instalment of the 2025 sponsorship deal, and the two have now parted ways and New Zealand Rugby are actively looking for a new sponsor as well as pressing ahead with legal action against Ratcliffe’s company.

But why should this be impactful for Manchester United and why should fans care?

INEOS and Ratcliffe arrived on the scene at United in December 2023 after the completion of a minority stake purchase in the football club of 27.7% for around £1.2billion. It was a deal that was heralded by many at the time as one that signalled a new dawn at Old Trafford, with the deal, while seeing the deeply unpopular Glazer family ownership retain a majority, handed Ratcliffe and INEOS oversight over matters of football strategy, including what happens next with regards to the club either redeveloping Old Trafford or moving to a new stadium.

Ratcliffe engaged in some aggressive cost-cutting measures early on, with 250 redundancies across the business. A number of perks were also removed as the pursuit of a change of culture gathered pace.

A new CEO in Omar Berrada arrived, and sweeping changes behind the scenes. The end of excess in terms of transfer spending was also promised, with the club wanting to target a different profile of player in the market and no longer pay bloated transfer fees and exorbitant wages.

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Change takes time, and there has to be patience and an element of trusting the process for these things to start paying dividends. Maybe United are still in that phase. But the New Zealand Rugby issue is the latest in a growing number of bad decisions that have seen questions rightly asked about just how strong their sporting strategy is, with struggles seen across much of its diverse portfolio.

Ratcliffe and INEOS’ pursuit of glory in sailing’s America’s Cup has hit choppy water, with tension so great between Ratcliffe and Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie that the latter parted ways with INEOS Britannia over the plans for the team’s future. Ainslie has even threatened legal action, while Ratcliffe has spent £200million on two failed bids to win the competition.

Then there are reported strains around the commitment to £50million per year in sponsorship for the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, with Telegraph claiming that the firm has sought to bring in other sponsors to help carry the financial burden, while the team look some way off being able to claim glory in the Tour de France, which is the aim.

INEOS has a one-third stake in the Mercedes Formula One team, and that is a financial play that has taken off after the initial 2020 investment, with the popularity of the Netflix ‘Drive to Survive’ series supercharging valuations of major teams, with Mercedes valued at $3.94billion (£3.18billion), up 46% year on year.

Whether or not INEOS and Ratcliffe see that kind of financial upside at United remains to be seen, but it will also be over a far longer period that they will need to be patient given the amount of capital required for a new stadium build and the time needed to turn around football fortunes that have left the club with a squad that is no longer elite and that will take a lot of money, transfer windows and smart recruitment to solve.

But there have already been worrisome signs. The long, drawn-out pursuit of Dan Ashworth from Newcastle United as sporting director ended in success as he arrived to spearhead the club’s strategy, but within five months he was gone, with INEOS having paid around £3million in compensation to bring him to the club, as well as a hefty severance package. Ratcliffe was reportedly unimpressed with what he had seen in the short space of time, despite Ashworth having garnered a fine reputation for recruitment at Brighton & Hove Albion and Newcastle, shopping in the kind of markets and achieving the kind of value that Ratcliffe wanted to see happen at United. Patience was not a virtue, however.

The summer decision to extend Erik ten Hag’s tenure as manager was folly, resulting in more wasted funds on sacking a manager many thought was going to be on his way out at the end of the previous season.

Ruben Amorim has had an awful start to his reign, but it is hard to judge a manager that has had to work with such an unbalanced squad that does not suit his playing style, and the Portuguese will have the time to at least try to make a mark as he aims to clean up a mess he hasn’t been responsible for, one that has taken several years to become so poor.

Sir Dave Brailsford, whose time at the helm of British Cycling delivered remarkable results, has been a key figure behind the scenes for INEOS Sport.

At the time of the New Zealand Rugby sponsorship deal, INEOS promised to fuse expertise in Formula One, cycling, sailing and football as “part of a unique sport performance group.”

In terms of competitive success, including the ownership of football teams OGC Nice and Lausanne which have failed to yield impressive results, there has been little to shout about, and for all the money spent on sponsorship and team ownership it has not gone hand in hand with success.

Ratcliffe has shown more of a desire to spend money on achieving sporting success through his investments in the last five years after overseeing such financial success with INEOS as a global petrochemicals company. But sporting investments require patience, and throwing into the melting pot the fact that there are fans to appease, it is no easy feat.

But having already shown their hand with a lack of patience at United, stories emerging from their other sporting assets don’t do an awful lot to change the idea that change might not come quickly enough for them at United, and that kind of approach tends to lead to poor decision after poor decision. For INEOS at United, they will need to take the long road and the pain along the way, and they should know that what they do with other sporting investments will be scrutinised as it could be instructive as to what fans might have to expect.