With the Friday evening deadline for any Chelsea bids drawing closer, we take a holistic look at the current state of possible buyers and consortiums who could table last-minute offers.
This is a unique situation for several reasons, but especially that a club like West London club Chelsea does not become available on the open market always, if ever. The London club is one of the biggest football clubs on the continent–reigning world and European champions – so there are a good number of interests and casino Australia intends to see how it plays out.
However, the club are currently under a couple of restrictions after the United Kingdom government and the European Union sanctioned their Russian owner Roman Abramovich following Russia’s recent invasion of neighbor Ukraine. The Blues cannot sell match day tickets or sell club merchandise and are restricted on how much the club can spend on any given match day.
There are several Billionaires and consortiums jockeying for positions with the club, lots of people putting finishing touches to their bids.
Here is a look at how some of the leading runners and riders are shaping up ahead of the Friday evening deadline.
The Ricketts family
This American family owns the American Baseball team Chicago Cubs. Significantly, the family is backed by Ken Griffin, who is a hedge fund billionaire and reports suggest he is three times as rich as Roman Abramovich. He is also the single richest individual that we know of at the moment who is keen on buying the West London club.
Sir Martin Broughton
Another bid is being fronted by Sir Martin Broughton. Sir Broughton is a former chairman of British Airways, an ex-chairman of Liverpool who was strongly involved when Liverpool was bought by Fenway Sports Group.
He is believed to be a long-term Chelsea fan and he has teamed up with Lord Coe, another long-term supporter of Chelsea. Lord Coe said during the week that Broughton is the right man to lead the London club into the future and also their consortium is well backed by the American financier, Michael Klein.
Nick Candy
A bid from Luxury property developer Nick Candy, who is a life-long supporter of the club is another interesting bid that will interest fans.
Nick is backed by former Chelsea player Gianluca Viallli, who loves sports betting Australia. Vialli now runs a company known as Tifosy Capital. Vialli said during the week he was very proud and privileged to be involved in Nick Candy’s bid to own the club and that he’d met him on many occasions in the last few weeks. He feels Candy is the right man to lead the club into the future.
Others
Other possible bidders for the club may include former United States ambassador to the United Kingdom and owner of the New York Jets, Woody Johnson. He is a close associate of Donald Trump and he is is putting together a consortium also.
There are also reports of the Saudi Media Group, which is thought to be interested in acquiring the London club.
All these bids must go in by Friday evening, and there’s still a possibility that someone will emerge that we have not even heard of at all because if you are the kind of person keen on buying a club as big as Chelsea and you have billions to splash in public, you really don’t need to say anything.