The Todd Boehly-led consortium which leads the race to buy Chelsea has around a week to sign a purchase agreement if they want to beat Britain’s richest man to the acquisition of the club.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a dramatic late bid to buy the club from Roman Abramovich on Friday when he tabled a bid of £4.25billion. His bid has been and will continue to be given serious consideration.
But Boehly’s group have been told they have been given preferred bidder status by the Raine Group, the merchant bankers handling the club’s sale. And they now have a short window, believed to be a week, to get to the point at which a purchase agreement can be signed and get the deal sealed.
Ratcliffe’s offer has ramped up the pressure on the LA Dodgers co-owner and his pals, and the fact they are understood to have bypassed Raine altogether to deal with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck there is clearly a belief from the Ineos supremo that he hasn’t left his move too late.
"We put an offer in this morning," Ratcliffe explained. "We are the only British bid. Our motives are simply to try and create a very fine club in London. We have no profit motive because we make our money in other ways.”
A statement released by Ratcliffe reads: "We believe that a club is bigger than its owners who are temporary custodians of a great tradition. With responsibility to the fans and the community. That is why we are committing to spending £1.75bn over 10 years that will be for the direct benefit of the club.
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"We will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea FC. This will be organic and ongoing so that we will not move away from the home of Chelsea and risk losing the support of loyal fans.
"We will continue to invest in the team to ensure we have a first-class squad of the world's greatest players, coaches and support staff, in the men's and women's games.
"And we hope to continue to invest in the academy to provide opportunity for talented youngsters to develop into first class players.”
But Boehly and Co are confident they can get things wrapped up in their favour and they remain in pole position to complete the buyout. Chelsea need the sale completed by the end of May, after Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK Government on March 10 following Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine.
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries this week warned that Chelsea are on “borrowed time” and need to finalise a takeover “within weeks”. Speaking to the BBC, Dorries said: "There is a very short window left for that sale to take place.
"Chelsea's being sold, as you know, and the sanctions apply, so those sanctions still apply during the sale. But what I will say, actually, is that Chelsea is very much on borrowed time at the moment." And when asked how quickly a sale would need to be completed, she answered “within weeks”.
