Britain's richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has '£90m-plus bid accepted to buy Nice'

Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe looks set to add to his sports portfolio after having a £90million-plus bid to buy Nice accepted by the Ligue 1 club.

Britain's richest man, who has an estimated fortune of £21billion, tried to buy the French side in February.

Ratcliffe has also reportedly looked to buy Chelsea but recently cooled his interest in the Blues.

According to French news outlet Nice-Matin, Ratcliffe has made 'significant progress' in purchasing the club as he made a bid 'that could exceed €100m (£88.8m)'.

It is believed Ratcliffe's brother Robert has been dealing with negotiations.

Nice, who are managed by Patrick Vieira, finished seventh in the league this season and were 10 points off the Europa League places.

The 66-year-old businessman bought Swiss football team Lausanne in 2017, invested £110million in a British challenge for the America's Cup with Sir Ben Ainslie last year and then bought cycling's Team Sky to rebrand them as Team Ineos in January.

Ratcliffe, who was knighted in 2018, is understood to have first approached the club in November, shortly after he moved to nearby Monaco for tax-related reasons.