It looks as if the saga surrounding Boston Celtics co-governor Steve Pagliuca’s bid to purchase British Premier League football (as in soccer) club Chelsea has come to an end, with the Daily Telegraph’s Matt Law reporting that Pagliuca’s investment group will not be the club’s preferred bidder.
In layman’s terms, that means the team’s current board does not believe Pagliuca’s group to be the best option to purchase the team, effectively taking them out of the running to buy the team currently up for sale after sanctions sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced the sale of the club by the prior owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg reports that Todd Boehly’s consortium is the likely frontrunner to land the team, but some uncertainty remains as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s consortium had announced they’d made a late offer worth more than $4 billion pounds (about $5 billion US).
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At any rate, it seems Pagliuca et al are out of the running, with the Bain Capital executive having to console himself with ownership of also recently-purchased Italian football club Atalanta. While certainly not on the scale of club like Chelsea, it’s far from the worst consolation prize.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
