Consortiums led by Nick Candy, Sir Martin Broughton, Todd Boehly and the Ricketts family have confirmed they have submitted offers to buy Chelsea as Friday’s deadline for bids passed.
Former Liverpool chairman Sir Broughton is joined by the president of World Athletics Lord Coe – both men are Chelsea season ticket holders – and have pledged to invest in players and facilities if successful.
They also said “all cash proceeds from the sale are delivered without delay to the victims of the ongoing humanitarian crisis created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and promised that fans would be “at the heart of decision making”.
Sir Broughton, who 12 years ago brokered the sale of Liverpool in similar circumstances after state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland suffered financial problems, told Sky News: “I’ve been a Chelsea fan since 1955. I’ve been down there for 67 years. I am a fan. I think it’s important that we have a great deal of fan involvement in this.
“We can bring stability. That’s an important part of having a consortium. When you have a single party you run geopolitical risks and financial risks, even health risks, where an incident can create confusion and chaos at the club.
“Where you have a consortium, if something like that happens, it affects the consortium – it doesn’t affect the club. A consortium brings long-term stability of like-minded, highly-capitalised people who are in it for the long haul, with no exit timeline at all.”
British luxury property developer Candy – who has also pledged to have fan representation on the club’s board – confirmed he is leading a global consortium that has submitted a bid of £2billion.
The group say they are committed to delivering financial support for all men’s, women’s and academy teams and want to build a new stadium at Stamford Bridge to create a major new London landmark.
The Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs, are joined in their bid by billionaire hedge fund owner Ken Griffin, who is the richest individual involved in the process and worth nearly three times as much as Roman Abramovich.
LA Dodgers part-owner Boehly, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and Jonathan Goldstein have backing in their bid from California-based investment firm Clearlake Capital, who have roughly $60bn (£45.6bn) of assets under management.
Times columnist and former Conservative government adviser Daniel Finkelstein and American PR legend Barbara Charone are also part of the consortium.
Charone 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.
There have been other confirmations of bids for Chelsea, with Aethel Partners putting in a bid worth more than £2billion for Chelsea on Thursday. 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.
However, Turkish businessman Muhsin Bayrak says he did not bid for Chelsea despite claiming earlier this month there was a “90 per cent…
Read More: Chelsea sale: Deadline for bids passes as Nick Candy and the Ricketts family