There is discontent among groups bidding to become the next owners of Chelsea Football Club because of a perceived favouritism being shown towards the Ricketts family after chairman Bruce Buck helped to facilitate a meeting between the family and Paul Canoville, the club’s first black player, to discuss previous comments.
As first reported by The Times, and since independently verified by football.london, Buck played an intermediary role in organising a meeting that took place last Thursday, hours before the shortlist to takeover from Roman Abramovich was confirmed.
The meeting with Canoville and Tom Ricketts, who is heading the bid to buy the club, was intended to smooth things over after the former player tweeted that he "seen and heard enough" from the prospective buyer and was "saying a big fat anti racism no to the Ricketts bid."
