Sir Jim Ratcliffe, 71, needs a PB in London Marathon if he’s to make Man Utd’s FA Cup semi-final after kick-off switch
SIR JIM RATCLIFFE is set for the race of his life if he is to attend Manchester United’s FA Cup semi-final next month.
The Red Devils booked their place in the final four by dramatically beating Liverpool 4-3 at Old Trafford last weekend.
Standing between Erik ten Hag‘s side and the final will be Championship Coventry City.
The FA have confirmed that the match is set to go ahead on Sunday, April 21 with a 3:30pm kick-off.
FA chiefs initially pushed for the game to kick-off at 4pm, but the start time was moved earlier after it was deemed to be a “high-risk” fixture by police.
The date of United’s match presents a conundrum for partial owner – as he’s already made plans.
Ratcliffe, 71, is set to run the London Marathon that day.
Usually getting underway at around 10:30am, the veteran billionaire would have to smash last year’s 4:30 time in order to make it to Wembley in time.
The Marathon starts in Greenwich, East London.
It then snakes around the capital before reaching the finishing line in Westminster.
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From there he’d be looking at an hour’s journey at the very least, by car or public transport, to reach Wembley for the match.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos funded Eluid Kipchoge’s amazing 1:59 time at the Vienna Marathon in 2019.
And Britain’s richest man recently discussed his love of distance running while appearing on Geraint Thomas‘ podcast.
Asked how many marathons he’s run in his life, Ratcliffe said: “It’s somewhere approaching 40. My project certainly doesn’t have a one in it!
“I did London last year. I did four and a half. I’m doing London again this year. It’s only six weeks away.
“I trained for London last year and I had a hamstring issue. I was out for five weeks and I didn’t have much time to retrain. I went to Africa, it was quite warm and I had a go. It was okay.
“Exactly the same thing has happened this year. I’ve had five weeks out with a hamstring so I only started training a week ago for London. It’s not very long. I need to get going.”
Ratcliffe, who owns 27.7 per cent of his boyhood club, is a keen adventurer at heart.
He has completed the gruelling Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert.
While he has also trekked BOTH the North and South poles.
Ratcliffe even completed an Ironman triathlon, which consists of a 2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run, aged 64.
While the Ineos chief aims to complete his latest physical challenge, Ten Hag will be aiming to mastermind a victory over second-tier Coventry to reach his second consecutive FA Cup final.
United skipper Bruno Fernandes has an unusual reason for already having the inside track on Mark Robins’ side.
The Portuguese, 29, told MUTV: “It is a tough game. I see some some of their games because my chef at home is a Sunderland fan.
“I get to see some Championship games sometimes with him at home.
“They have good players on the ball. They are really difficult to play against physically. We saw it against Wolves.”