The
Ricketts family pledged to put "diversity and inclusion" at the heart of
Chelsea as fans protested their bid to buy the club outside Stamford Bridge
on Saturday.
Between 50-100 Chelsea supporters gathered ahead of Saturday's Premier
League clash at home to Brentford to demonstrate against the Ricketts
family's bid to buy Chelsea.
The Chelsea Supporters' Trust said earlier on Saturday its membership
"neither supports nor has confidence in" the potential new owners and that
77 per cent of members polled did not support the Ricketts' family bid.
The family have committed in previous statements to being diverse and
inclusive and doubled down on that pledge in a statement on Saturday.
It said: "Over the past fortnight, our bid team has met with several
supporter groups to explain our vision for Chelsea Football Club. In those
meetings, and by letter to all groups, we have shared a set of specific
commitments we will make to fans, if our bid is successful.
"We believe these are far-reaching and certainly include an absolute
commitment on the part of the Ricketts Family and the bid team to put
diversity and inclusion at the heart of the club.
"We look forward to more meetings - including with the Chelsea Supporters'
Trust - over the coming days and to making a public reiteration of our
values and commitments."
The Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts are among the final four bidders aiming to
buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. Cubs chiefs and siblings Tom and Laura
Ricketts front the family's candidacy to take over at the west London club.
Father Joe Ricketts, who has no role at the Cubs or in the bid to buy
Chelsea, used Islamophobic language in emails sent between 2009 and 2013
that were leaked in 2019. The 80-year-old later apologised.
Chelsea fans have voiced concerns consistently on social media, and now the
CST has added further weight to those worries.
"At present, it is clear that our membership neither supports nor has
confidence in the Ricketts family's bid for the club," read a CST statement.
"This is reflective of wider concerns articulated by large, vocal sections
of Chelsea's supporter base.
"The CST Board is guided by our membership, and thus we do not currently
believe it is in the best interests of our members for the Ricketts family's
bid to succeed.
"We await further public detail from the Ricketts family on concrete steps
they will take to address the well-documented concerns of Chelsea
supporters.
"Should the Ricketts publicly set out clear and detailed plans on how they
will address support concerns, we may survey our members again in the next
week."
Tom Ricketts has built bridges with the Muslim community in Chicago since
his father's emails surfaced in 2019, and continues to apologise for his
father's comments.
The Ricketts have been adding advisory partners in fine-tuning their bid
ahead of the April 11 deadline for improved offers, but their bid is
understood to be funded entirely by cash.
Hedge fund supremo Ken Griffin has added his significant personal financial
clout behind the Ricketts' bid for Chelsea.
Blues supporters continue to raise fears over the Ricketts' candidacy to buy
the club, however, with those issues crystallised in the CST survey.
"Last week, the Chelsea Supporters' Trust stated that the Ricketts family
must urgently and publicly address supporter concerns - especially with
regard to inclusivity, given both past and recent statements by members of
the family," read the CST statement.
"We also committed to surveying our members as to their confidence and
support in the Ricketts family's bid for Chelsea FC.
"Yesterday we conducted a snap survey of our membership. We asked our
membership whether, based on information in the public domain as of April 1,
they had confidence that the Ricketts family would run an inclusive and
successful club, and we asked whether they supported the Ricketts family's
bid.
"Our members have given a clear message in this regard: 72 per cent of those
who responded do not currently have confidence that the Ricketts family
would run an inclusive and successful club, with five per cent of
respondents believing they would.
"Similarly, 77 per cent of members who responded do not support the Ricketts
family's bid for Chelsea FC and three per cent of respondents are in
support.
"It is essential that the new owners of Chelsea FC have the confidence of
the supporter base and demonstrate an understanding of the values that we
stand for."
Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale on March 2, amid Russia's invasion of
Ukraine. The 55-year-old was then sanctioned by the UK Government and later
the EU, with Downing Street claiming to have proven his links to Vladimir
Putin.
Chelsea have been granted a special Government licence to continue
operating, though under strict terms. Abramovich cannot profit from
Chelsea's sale, but had already vowed to write off the club's £1.5billion
debt.
LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly and British business titan Jonathan
Goldstein, Sir Martin Broughton and Lord Sebastian Coe, the Chicago
Cubs-owning Ricketts family and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca are
the four remaining contenders.
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