America’s Cup loses pieces: Ineos is in crisis and withdraws its challenge

The America’s Cup is losing pieces. It had been in the air for a few weeks but now it is official, Ineos Britannia will not take part in the next America’s Cup. The team itself made this known in a statement, where it accused Athena Racing, Ben Ainslie’s new team, of failing to meet the timelines of an unspecified agreement between the parties. All this after owner Jim Ratcliffe himself assured just a few weeks ago that the team would still go ahead despite the divorce from Ben Ainslie.

In fact, behind the decision to abandon the America’s Cup is an overall reduction in sponsorships in various sectors, sports in particular, of the chemical industry giant.

The crisis of Ineos

In February. New Zealand Rugby accused Ineos of failing to comply with agreements on sponsorship of New Zealand’s national leagues and teams. Shortly before, Ratcliffe had had to heavily cut spending on its involvement with Manchester United, the Premier League soccer team in which Ineos owns a major stake.

And in the same weeks a substantial cut in the sponsorship of the Mercedes F1 team where Ineos was engaged was also made known. These are all indications that suggest a crisis at the giant that Ratcliffe owns, which is inevitably reflected in the cut in sponsorship.

Ineos’ history in the America’s Cup is far from successful: eliminated in 2017, eliminated again in 2020 by Luna Rossa in the Prada Cup final, won the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2024 but was scrambled by Team New Zealand in the final. The goal of bringing the America’s Cup back to England was never within reach, quite the contrary. The budget spent in the 3 campaigns? Difficult to calculate exactly, since Ineos Britannia was a team with virtually no funding limit, but approximate it could be close to 250 million euros per campaign.

A detriment to the Cup?

With the possibility of having two British teams, the America’s Cup would gain one more challenger than in the last edition. Ben Ainslie with Athena will, barring other resounding surprises, fill the role of Challenge of Record, but in fact as of today the teams interested in participating in the next edition remain Luna Rossa, Athena for that matter, American Magic, with a big question mark concerning the continuation of the campaigns of Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Orient Express.

Uncertainty regarding the formula and venue for the next edition, but within the next two months more should be known, cannot take the participation of the Swiss and French for certain. Bertarelli, the patron of Alinghi, seems to want a less stringent nationality rule that would allow him to prepare a more competitive mailing team. Will he be accommodated? The impression is that if Grant Dalton and the New Zealanders do not want to lose Alinghi as a challenger, they should give in on a few points and work out a more elastic Protocol.

One thing is certain, these are certainly not memorable weeks for the oldest sailing and sports trophy there is. Kiwis would do well to think about that.

Mauro Giuffrè