ownership is complex. I have no visibility into precisely who owns what these days. The league probably knows, but it's not obviously public. Or it's beyond my search skills.
In ManU's case, Wikipedia says that the Glazer family still have a 90% stake, but INEOS seems to run things. It could be that Wikipedia is out of date on this one. The club was acquired gradually by the American Glazer family, owners of the Tampa Bay NFL team, in the early 'oughts. They privatized it by 2005. It was a highly unpopular move for the local fanbase, some of whom started a non-league club (i.e., below the fifth tier on the pyramid) called "FC United of Manchester" in protest. It's still playing in the Northern Premier League (7th tier) where it's currently third in the table and in a promotion playoff spot. But long story short, the fanbase were unable to oust the Glazers. The death of the family patriarch Malcolm Glazer in 2014, combined with diminishing success on the field, has complicated things. That somehow brought INEOS to the fore, which gave Ratcliffe his leadership position. It's been a rocky ride on the field until the appointment of their current "interim" manager, Darren Fletcher, who has, at least temporarily, turned the club around.
To complicate ownership questions further, many UK clubs have shares trading publicly on various exchanges; the London Exchange, for example. ManU shares are listed (or at least were) on the NYSE. One needs to remember that most football, rugby, field hockey and county cricket clubs in England (and the UK in general) have been around for a very long time. ManU dates from 1878, for example. "Owners" come and go, the clubs tend to stay in place. Stakeholders in the various clubs have different degrees of influence, depending on the club. Fan groups have voice and influence even when they don't have actual ownership, and I think ManU have at least two different ones of those. Oh, and then there's the Football Association making rules and the UK government making rules. It's typically British in complex opaqueness.
It's probably worthwhile to note that Manchester is a decidedly Labour Party town. The current Manchester City Council consists of 87 Labour members, 4 LibDems, 3 Greens, 1 Workers Party and 1 Independent; which is to say NO Tories and NO Reform members. So Ratcliffe isn't winning any popularity contests in his club's municipality.
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