The Ricketts family reportedly hold a valuable advantage in their bid to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich as next week's deadline for final bids approaches.
Four bidders remain in the running to takeover from the Russian following his 19-year run at the helm of the Blues. Alongside the Ricketts family, Todd Boehly's consortium, Sir Martin Broughton's consortium and Steve Pagliuca's remain in contention for the ownership.
But anger has been sparked among Chelsea fans after Islamophobic comments from Joe Ricketts emerged. Joe is not involved in the bids or in the current ownership of the Chicago Cubs but that is viewed as irrelevant by a significant number of fans who want to see the club moved into the right hands.
Earlier this week, Gary Neville called on the family to withdraw from the race because of the backlash. He compared it to the situations seen at Manchester United and Newcastle in recent years, urging them to consider the feelings of supporters.
"There have been movements and noise in the last week that the Ricketts’ bid seems to be the favoured one and it seems to be getting preferential treatment as other parties have suggested," Neville said. "I have to say, we don’t know. There is no transparency, there is no independence in English football to be able to determine how you bid for a football club.
"‘I have to say, if I were the Ricketts family and got that type of hostility on the way in… move away. Move away, the fans are important. We’ve seen unpopular owners like the Glazers at Manchester United or Mike Ashley at Newcastle United, it drains the absolute life, not just out of a football club, but out of a city, and out of everybody watching because the energy goes, and that can’t happen in a football club."
As reported by Ben Jacobs of CBS, The Ricketts family are not going anywhere, however. The recent added investment of Ken Griffin is viewed as key, although plans remain for the family to remain the majority shareholders.
However, they reportedly hold another valuable advantage, having previous looked into purchasing the club four years ago. Jacobs wrote on Twitter: "The advantage the Ricketts bid has is not just in the capital they’d bring upfront but the fact they did due diligence in 2018. The club isn’t the same then as now but there is certainly value in information procured back then."
