The sale of Chelsea has been slow to progress, and after more than a month of negotiations, the Burley Consortium, the Paaluca family and the Martin Broughton Consortium have entered the bidding stage.
According to Sky Sports, the BBC and the Daily Telegraph, the consortium led by American billionaire Todd Boehly is considered to have the greatest chance of becoming the preferred bidder for Chelsea. Just yesterday, The richest man in the UK, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, suddenly announced that he would join the competition, sending a £4.25 billion bid, the highest bidder at present.
Ratcliffe, 69, chairman and largest shareholder of the well-known multinational Ineos Chemical Group, has personal assets estimated at £21 billion, making him the richest man in the UK. Ratcliffe had previously claimed to be a Manchester United fan, but he also bought Chelsea season tickets based in London. In recent years, he has been involved in the sports industry, with two football clubs, one in Ligue 1 Nice and the other in the Swiss Super League, Lausanne Sport. Ratcliffe also owns professional cycling team Ineos Sky, which has won the Tour de France seven times.
It is worth mentioning that as early as May 2019, there were British media reports that Ratcliffe wanted to buy Chelsea, when the offer was 2 billion pounds through an intermediary, but Abu refused.
Yesterday, an official statement from the Ineos Group read: "The chairman of inelix, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has officially bid £4.25 billion for Chelsea Football Club. Of this, £2.5 billion went to charitable trusts to support war victims, and another £1.75 billion went directly to clubs over the next 10 years, including developing stadiums, improving infrastructure and team investments. ”
Ratcliffe held talks with Chelsea club president Bruce Barker on Thursday and decided to challenge three other U.S. consortia involved in the bidding at the last minute, The Times reported. Ratcliffe offered Chelsea £4.25 billion and submitted a bid to the bank on Friday morning.
Ratcliffe told reporters: "We are the only British buyer. Our motivation is simple, to build a top team in London, and we didn't think about making money from football because we have other ways to get paid. ”
Nick Purewal, a journalist for the Associated Press, said Ratcliffe's offer to buy Chelsea had been seriously considered. Overall, Ratcliffe's addition has made the Chelsea sale even more confusing, and the advantages of the Burleigh consortium of American capital as a preferred bidder are challenged. The Independent reported that Ratcliffe's football investment background and offer had the potential to get Abu to reach a deal with him. However, the report also said that the Burleigh consortium will still be confirmed as the preferred bidder.
According to The Athletic, the Burleigh consortium will have a week to reach an exclusivity deal with Abu to sell Chelsea, with the Burley consortium making a total offer of more than £4 billion. But Ratcliffe's bid of £4.25 billion is the highest of all bidders so far, can Ratcliffe succeed? Adds a lot of suspense and dramatically pulls it full.
As a Chelsea fan, of course, I understand that there will be no better boss than Abu. But if the replacement can pay more attention to the development of the club, rather than just thinking about making money, it is naturally a better choice. From this point of view, Ratcliffe, britain's richest man, should be more reliable than the Burleigh consortium.