On Friday, Britain's richest man, Ratcliffe, announced a high-profile bid for Chelsea, stirring up a thousand waves.
After a relatively calm "post-review" phase, the Chelsea acquisition suddenly made waves on Friday: Britain's richest man, Ratcliffe, announced his entry in a high profile, claiming to spend £4.25 billion to buy the Premier League Blues. As soon as the news came out, there was a lot of discussion among all parties, strongly supporting "British clubs should be owned by the British", and there were also doubts that this latecomer should not have the right to bid. According to the news of a number of British media, the current transfer of Chelsea does not seem to be affected by this emergency, and the opportunity to buy the team is still the previous entrant - the consortium led by Todd Burley, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, has now seemed to have become the most likely party to succeed.
Burleigh.
Ratcliffe's bid was announced through a public statement from the INEOS Group. The latter is a uk-based chemical conglomerate, and Ratcliffe is both chairman and CEO of the group. After the announcement, the alleged $11.6 billion Uk's richest man quickly received some public support, such as Sky Sports's reporter Solkhkel said: "If I were a Chelsea fan, I would be very excited to see this offer." "I think it's the best option for the Blues to take over from Ratcliffe after saying goodbye to Abu.
Ratcliffe is not only British, but also has long-term investment experience in football. Since 2017, his Ineos Group has been the controller of The Swiss team Lausanne Sport. In 2019, Ineos acquired Ligue 1 side Nice. In addition, according to previous British media reports, Ratcliffe has actually planned to acquire Premier League clubs twice, including inquiring to Chelsea in 2018 and linking up with Manchester United in 2019. After Abu was affected by the Russian-Ukrainian incident to list the Blues, the British rich man was also the first to be rumored to participate in the acquisition, but at that time, Ratcliffe's team "debunked the rumors" and now somehow changed his mind.
It should be noted that the slogan "English clubs owned by the British" is certainly loud, but Ratcliffe himself was not considered a fan of Chelsea before. He is more like a Manchester United fan, at least many Red Devils fans and some of the Manchester media are in this way, so this time the price of 4.25 billion pounds to buy the Blues, Ratcliffe's behavior is also seen by some as a "betrayal". In addition, the 4.25 billion announced by Ineos is also watery on a closer look, and the part used for the acquisition is 2.5 billion pounds, which is not particularly obvious compared to the bidders who have passed the initial screening, but the 1.75 billion pounds promised to invest in the later period (10-year period) are much higher than the 1 billion asked by Abu.
Ratcliffe.
In addition, there is a very important point: according to the previous process, Chelsea's bidding after listing was closed as early as last month, including the supplementary price adjustment stage of "small circle decisive victory". At this time, Ratcliffe announced that he would be admitted, and it is difficult to say whether his offer will be accepted by the Rennes Group, that is, the commercial banking company entrusted by Abu. Although Ratcliffe himself revealed through the Times and other media that he and the British government have discussed and will soon be able to come up with enough funds, at least from the perspective of rules, this kind of halfway entry is not in line with the procedure.
While the "legitimacy" of the British rich intervened in doubt, a number of British media also quickly revealed that the final winner was close to surface. After the initial screening at the end of March, four bidders were left behind. By the middle of this month, due to the strong opposition of fans, the Ricketts family from the United States took the initiative to give up. According to the BBC news on Friday, Pagliuca, one of the NBA Celtic bosses, is the second out. The Daily Telegraph made it more explicit that the team, led by former Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton, had also lost, with Burleigh Group having won the bid for "exclusive negotiations" with the auctioneers over the coming week. According to the previously estimated schedule, the Blues hope to complete the transfer on May 31, that is, before the end of the British government's "special permission", but this week, the British Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports also revealed that Chelsea is seeking to extend the time limit slightly.
In fact, before that, the acquisition team composed of American businessman Burley, Swiss wealthy businessman Weiss and the former's business partner, the British Goldstein, has always been hot. They had little financial problems, and the final bid was said to be at least a £2.5 billion acquisition plus a £1 billion late-stage investment. After officially participating in the bidding, the team also took some actions to please the fans, such as inviting the "Blues fan representative" and The Times writer Finkelstein to join. Although Sir Broughton, who was once optimistic by some media, is a Britishman and has the help of former London Olympic Committee President Sebastian Coe, the main source of funds behind him is two American businessmen.
Britain's richest man in turmoil, patriotic car fans or hypocrisy?
On Friday, Britain's richest man, Ratcliffe, announced a high-profile bid for Chelsea, offering £4.25 billion (2.5 billion plus 1.75 billion late-stage investment), stirring up a thousand waves. Although various British media quickly followed up with reports, saying that burleigh group, which is mainly American-funded, is the potential winner through the formal bidding process, local fans still have a heated discussion on this matter. Many people are very supportive of Ratcliffe becoming the new boss of the Premier League Blues, but some people are strongly opposed, not only believing that his bid is not in accordance with the rules, but also saying that the British rich man has some problems in himself.
The reason for supporting Ratcliffe is, needless to say, everyone understands. The buyers who have passed the initial screening have been American capital, including the former Liverpool chairman Sir Brighton's team is also standing behind the Americans, and now there is a local super-rich, and it is said that there is money in Abu, is this a choice is not fantastic? So there are also some media outlets that create momentum for Ratcliffe: "If he wins, Chelsea fans should be happy about it." ”
Admittedly, the statement issued by Ineos Group, a subsidiary of Ratcliffe, was also quite contagious, "This is a British bid, for a britsh Club. "It is about saying that the British club should be bought by the British, and establishing for themselves the image of a patriot who drove out the greedy Yankees." But is this really the case? Some provocative fans have pointed out that although Ratcliffe has had season tickets at Stamford Bridge for many years, he has actually been a Manchester United fan since he was a child, and let the Red Devils fans hold the Blues, are you sure nothing strange will happen? And this is only a "small problem", and more sharp-tongued people criticize Ratcliff as a wall-riding clown who chases interests, and patriotism is all pretended.
Why is there such an evaluation? One of the key words is Ratcliffe's current "nationality." Following Britain's official decision to leave the EU, the Lancashire-born 69-year-old businessman changed his tax address from Hamptonshire to Monaco in September 2020. According to reports at the time, the move was said to save him as much as £4 billion in taxes. As a result, in the eyes of some British people, Ratcliffe has become a money-first duplicitous faction, while verbally supporting Brexit and saying that he wants to benefit the people of the motherland, and then turning around and sneaking to other countries for his own money.
About Ratcliffe's "black spots", he also moved his factory from Wales to France. Others said the billionaire had promised to build a car factory in the country to drive employment, but in the end it was also a blank check. In this bid for Chelsea, Ratcliffe did not bid before the stipulated time limit (and even denied the rumors of interest), nor did he hand over the quotation form to the commercial banking company entrusted by Abu, but directly approached the chairman of Chelsea Club, Buck. This can be said to be very domineering, but it is also obviously not very disciplined.
In this regard, some British netizens wondered whether Ratcliffe had consulted with the British government and knew what the additional benefits were, and then suddenly changed his mind and decided to enter the game. That doesn't seem like a good signal. If the speculation is true, it only shows that the British billionaire is also hypocritical about the Blues.
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