According to Sky News, the owners of NBA franchise, the Cleveland Cavaliers, have teamed up with one of the four remaining bidders for Chelsea. The report claims that Rock Entertainment Group (REG) is set to join forces with the Ricketts family.
The Ricketts family are the most controversial of the remaining bidders, with many Chelsea supporters vocal about their dislike of the interested party. The Chelsea Supporters' Trust (CST) released a statement in the week, saying: "Last week, the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust stated that the Ricketts family must urgently and publicly address supporter concerns — especially with regard to inclusivity, given both past and recent statements by members of the family.
"We also committed to surveying our members as to their confidence and support in the Ricketts family's bid for Chelsea FC. Yesterday we conducted a snap survey of our membership.
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"We asked our membership whether, based on information in the public domain as of April 1, they had confidence that the Ricketts family would run an inclusive and successful club, and we asked whether they supported the Ricketts family’s bid.
"Our members have given a clear message in this regard: 72 per cent of those who responded do not currently have confidence that the Ricketts family would run an inclusive and successful club, with five per cent of respondents believing they would. Similarly, 77 per cent of members who responded do not support the Ricketts family’s bid for Chelsea FC and three per cent of respondents are in support.
"It is essential that the new owners of Chelsea FC have the confidence of the supporter base and demonstrate an understanding of the values that we stand for. At present, it is clear that our membership neither supports nor has confidence in the Ricketts family’s bid for the club."
Ahead of Chelsea's humbling 4-1 home defeat to west London rivals Brentford on Saturday, Tom Ricketts put out a statement with regard to his family's bid.
He said: "Over the past fortnight, our bid team has met with several supporter groups to explain our vision for Chelsea Football Club. In those meetings, and by letter to all groups, we have shared a set of specific commitments we will make to fans, if our bid is successful.
"We believe these are far-reaching and certainly include an absolute commitment on part of the Ricketts Family and the bid team to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of the club. We look forward to more meetings - including with the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust - over the coming days and to making a public reiteration of our values and commitments.”
Dan Gilbert is the man responsible for the bid. The 60-year-old Detroit-born businessman has been the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers since March 2005. In Gilbert's tenure with the NBA franchise, the Cavs have won five Eastern Conference championships. Gilbert is worth an estimated $31billion (£23.6bn), owning over 100 affiliated companies across America.
Confirmed interested parties are reported to have been given until April 11 to submit their final bids for the club, with the Government then left to sign off the sale to the new owners.
