Roman Abramovich and the Raine Groups' decision to snub Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton was down to Stadium and funding issues on each bidder's behalf as Todd Boehly and Jim Ratcliffe now battle it to be the new kings of west London.
From four to only two as Friday proved to be a big day in the ever-changing Chelsea takeover race. First off, you had the news that the richest man in Britain Jim Ratcliffe had made an eleventh-hour £4billion bid to purchase the club. Then came the news that Stephen Pagliuca's and Sir Martin Broughton's offers had been declined. Now, with Boehly in the driving seat, Ratcliffe is very much the underdog as we approach the climax of this ultimate saga which is set to come to an end, with Nadine Dorries admitting that the Blues were on 'borrowed time.'
Time which is now being used effectively to close the negotiations for the new ownership structure, whether it will be Boehly's consortium or Ratcliffe on his own remains to be seen. But with Broughton and Pagliuca now out of the race for good, there is a better understanding as to why their bids had failed in the eyes of Abramovich and Pagliuca.
READ MORE: Chelsea sale: How Jim Ratcliffe can still win takeover race despite Todd Boehly progress
As per CBS Sports' Ben Jacobs who has been covering this whole takeover situation extensively, he has signalled that the stadium plans provided by the Boston Celtics and Atalanta owner was a big red flag in the eyes of the Chelsea executives, Abramovich himself and the Raine Group who he had employed to carry out this process. He tweeted: 'Pagliuca’s plans for renovating Stamford Bridge lacked a clear roadmap and no written confirmation of if/how he planned to scale back Atalanta was provided. A public statement reaffirming his commitment only provided more questions.'
Broughton's consortium seemed to have a lot more members involved, with F1 star Lewis Hamilton and Tennis legend Serena Williams having joined forces with John Terry's own True Blues group in endorsing the Brits' bid which in the end came to no avail due to the funding issues that presented itself from having too many people involved. 'Broughton’s bid required partial funding via loans,' Jacobs clarified. 'This counted against the bid in a decision based on fine margins. The “celebritizion” (as one Raine source put it) of the bid wasn’t well received either and was seen as a move to turn the sale into a popularity contest.'
'But above all else, Boehly’s bid just stood out. One of the reasons why is because, in each area suitors were asked to focus on, the group provided real experts.'
Chelsea fans- in a hypothetical world, if Boehly's and Ratcliffe's bids would have failed and if it was between Pagliuca and Broughton, who would you have opted for? Let us know in the comments section!
