The Raine Group, who had been employed by Roman Abramovich to manage the sale of Chelsea FC, have felt 'deterred to announce the Todd Boehly preferred bidder status as they remain 'open' to Jim Ratcliffe's eleventh-hour offer.
Boehly and co in his consortium funded by Clearlake Capital are currently in a period of exclusivity regarding talks directly with Abramovich to try and seal a deal by May 31 but if there were to be problems, there would be nothing to stop the Russian oligarch from turning to the current Nice owner or either one of Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton's groups, who he had previously rejected in the previous round to try and get a deal done amid constant pressures by the UK Government to do so.
Therefore it really still is anyone's game but this mission impossible type of scenario that Ratcliffe has on his hands currently means that he needs many things to go his way before his opportunity to pounce comes around - if it even does come around is another question at this stage. But if it does present itself, the richest man in Britain has already made his intentions clear as to what supporters can expect under his guidance as outlined in his and INEOS' joint statement released after the news broke that his own £4.25billion bid was lodged to Bruce Buck and Abramovich directly.
