With
the deadline for any Chelsea bids required by Friday evening, we take a look
at the latest state of play and possible consortiums who could submit their
offers.
It is a unique situation for many reasons, but especially that a club like
Chelsea does not become available on the open market very often, if ever.
They are one of the biggest clubs in the world - the world and European
champions - so there is a lot of interest.
However, they are under a variety of restrictions after the UK government
and the EU sanctioned owner Roman Abramovich following Russia's invasion of
Ukraine. The club cannot sell tickets to games or sell merchandise and are
restricted on how much they can spend on any given game day.
There are lots of people jockeying for position with Chelsea, lots of people
finalising the fine details of the consortium that they are putting
together.
Here are how some of the main runners and riders are shaping up ahead of
Friday's deadline.
The Ricketts family
The American family who own the Chicago Cubs. Significantly, they are backed
by Ken Griffin, who is a hedge fund billionaire and we've been told he is
almost three times as rich as Roman Abramovich. He is also the single
richest individual that we are aware of at the moment who is interested in
buying Chelsea.
Sir Martin Broughton
There is another bid which is being fronted by Sir Martin Broughton. He is a
former chairman of British Airways, a former chairman of Liverpool who was
heavily involved when Liverpool was taken over by Fenway Sports Group.
He is a long-term Chelsea supporter and he has teamed up with Lord Coe,
another long-term Chelsea supporter. Lord Coe said Wednesday night that
Broughton is the right man to lead Chelsea into the future and also their
consortium is backed by the American financier, Michael Klein.
Nick Candy
Another bid that is very interesting is one that involves another life-long
Chelsea supporter, and that is luxury property developer Nick Candy.
He is backed by Gianluca Viallli, who of course used to play for Chelsea.
Vialli now has a company called Tifosy Capital. Vialli said on Wednesday he
was very proud and privileged to be involved in Candy's bid and that he'd
met him on several occasions in the past few weeks. He believes Candy is the
right man to lead Chelsea into the future.
The Boehly-Wyss-Goldstein-Finkelstein
consortium
There's also the other bid from the US, part-owner of the LA Dodgers Todd
Boehly who has teamed up with Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and they are
backed by Jonathan Goldstein.
Times columnist and former Conservative government adviser Daniel
Finkelstein has joined the trio.
He is a Chelsea supporter and would become a non-executive director if the
bid is successful. He was made a life peer in 2013.
Bloomberg are reporting that Barbara Charone has also joined the same
consortium. She is a Chelsea fan who set up the music PR company MBC PR.
Madonna, Foo Fighters, Rod Stewart and Maroon 5 are some of their artists.
Aethel Partners
Aethel Partners put in a bid worth more than £2billion for Chelsea on
Thursday.
It is an investment company based in Berkeley Square in London. It is
willing to provide Chelsea with an immediate £50m to deal with any
short-term financing the club may need.
Will there be another unknown bidder?
Other possible bidders include Woody Johnson, the former US ambassador to
the UK and owner of the New York Jets. He is very close to Donald Trump and
is putting together a consortium as well.
There is also the Saudi Media Group, which is said to be interested.
All these bids have to go in by Friday, and there's still a big possibility
that someone is going to emerge that we have not heard from at all because
if you are the kind of person that is interested in buying Chelsea and you
have billions to spend in public, you don't really need to say anything.
You do your business in private, stay under the radar, and just put a big,
big bid on the table at the last minute. So there is a possibility that that
is going to happen as well.
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